HOUSTON — The Texas Department of Transportation is expected to hit the roads in Houston to prepare for this weekend's freezing weather. Crews are set to spray a brine solution on major freeways and roadways in the Houston area to help slow the formation of ice.

The transportation agency will spray state-operated roads with brine, which is a mixture of salt and water that can help prevent ice from bonding to pavement.

If you can’t stay home during the upcoming winter weather, steps are being taken to keep Houston’s roads safe.

TxDOT told KSAT that maintenance crews will begin pretreating roadways Thursday morning, focusing first on the Hill Country — including Kerrville and Boerne — and on northern parts of San Antonio.

Crews with TxDOT and cities have been working to treat roads as a winter storm hits West Texas. But slick spots are already being reported.

Operating round-the-clock from the Transguide center in San Antonio, crews are tackling icy road threats with 800,000 gallons of brine.

As an arctic blast approaches San Antonio, be on the lookout Thursday for TxDOT crews treating roadways to prevent icing. Only a tenth of an inch of frozen rain or sleet can make a road dangerous. And that's about the amount likely to fall on the San Antonio area this weekend.

Have you ever seen a truck spraying the road before a winter storm and wondered what that mixture is? Right now, road crews in North Texas are putting down

Crews will pretreat all major roads in the Coastal Bend including I-37, U.S. 77 U.S. 281, U.S. 59, SH 286, SH 358.

TxDOT has recommended three alternate routes.