Call it what you want-Snowpocalypse, Snowjam-last January’s winter storm caused a massive headache for thousands of Atlanta residents who were stuck on roadways for hours. Officials promised it wouldn't happen again and they've made lots of changes to make sure it doesn't.

Almost from the start, the roads around Atlanta were an icy mess. It got worse, as thousands of motorists poured onto Interstates. Crews trying to clear snow and ice were stuck, like everyone else.

“Traffic was completely jammed, and our rock spreaders and salt hoppers could not access the roadway,” says Dale Brantley, State Maintenance Engineer with the Georgia Department of Transportation. Instead of reacting to winter weather, he says his agency will now take steps to prevent icing before it happens.

The state has spent $14.5 million on snow removal trucks and plows, temperature sensors embedded in roadways and stockpiles of salt. Brantley says brine, a mixture of salt and water, is the biggest change of all.

“We felt that would be something we could potentially use in Georgia prior to an event with a controlled environment, where we could actually control what traffic was doing to a point without mass hysteria as far as everybody trying to leave to go home at one time or the event already started,” he says.

Georgia DOT got the idea from their counterparts in Tennessee.

“Our goal is not to let the ice bond to the roadway. And that's what that does, it keeps it slushy,” says Estel Hagewood, Winter Maintenance Manager at the Tennessee Department of Transportation. “The same thing as a Teflon in a skillet when you're cooking an egg or something as simple as that.”

In Tennessee, road crews apply brine to the Interstate 24-48 hours before snow or ice fall. Georgia will spray brine on I-285 around Atlanta and all of the Interstates inside it.

Roads could still be slick in some spots, and accidents will happen, especially at busy points like the Downtown Connector. If that's the case, Georgia Emergency Management Agency director Jim Butterworth says "strike teams" will be in place to clear them quickly.

“They would be around the metro area. As few as 10, as many as 30,” Butterworth says. The teams include DOT crews, as well as officers from the Georgia State Patrol and Georgia National Guard. The Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Forestry Commission would assist in clearing downed trees or other storm debris.

The state has taken other steps to prepare--everything from hiring a meteorologist to holding a mock "snow drill" last November. Officials say there are now better lines of communication between various state agencies and forecasters at the National Weather Service. But the key to this response is advance warning of winter weather.

Early in the morning on January 16, ice led to more than a dozen wrecks on I-20 in Atlanta. GDOT says there was no indication from weather forecasters of ice beforehand.

Even with better preparation, Mother Nature still has a mind of its own.

Tags: Bradley George, winter weather, Snowjam, snowpocalypse, Georgia Department of Transportation, jim butterworth, winter weather one year later