MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Minnesota Department of Transportation is getting ready for icy roads this weekend.

MnDOT is filling its trucks with salt and sand and has started re-attaching plow blades removed from its trucks after clearing roads of the latest snow blast.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the department moved to round-the-clock 12-hour shifts.

MnDOT metro spokesman Kevin Walker says that truck drivers would not put melting chemicals on the road Thursday into Friday, since expected rain would only wash them away. The temperature Friday is expected to drop from a high of 27 to near zero before dawn Saturday.

Thursday's forecast calls for morning fog, followed by rain, snow or freezing snow. Western Minnesota could see blowing snow Friday with light freezing drizzle followed by snow in the east.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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