Friday, January 27, 2006

Snow removal is daunting task for hard-working crews

Guest opinion by Brian Christiansen


Brian Christiansen is Ketchum Street superintendent.

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The Ketchum Street Department maintains the streets in the winter per resolution number 684.

The Street Department is required to plow snow from the streets when the snow depth reaches 3 inches. The street department is also required to sand the streets whenever conditions warrant. The Ketchum Police Department is responsible for monitoring street conditions and contacting Ketchum Dispatch when the Street Department services are needed. Dispatch in-turn calls the Street Superintendent or the on call sander personnel and relays the information. If plowing is required the Street Superintendent calls out the full time crew, part time crew and the contract snow haulers.

The full time crew is required to live fairly close to enable a reasonable response time to winter requests. The full time crew can usually respond to the Street Department within an hour of a phone call. Our part time equipment operators and contract snow haulers are able to live further south in Richfield, Fairfield, Shoshone and Gooding, so their response time can be more than two hours, depending on how bad the storm is. Our winter part time help is getting harder and harder to find, so we are grateful for the help we have.

Ketchum residential streets are plowed to the side of the road and the snow is stored in the city right-of-way. Property owners are responsible for clearing their own driveways and parking areas without placing the snow in the street. If we have good snow fall and the residential streets start to narrow the Street Department will widen the streets and haul the snow away as time permits.

In the Ketchum community core, property owners are responsible for moving the snow from the sidewalks to the edge of the street, just off the gutter area but not in the travel lane. Then the city moves the snow to the center of the street and hauls it away as quickly as possible.

On the average it takes about 8 hours to complete our plow routes. When we are able to start plowing at 1:00 a.m. we can usually have the city streets cleared and sanded by 9 a.m. However, several factors can affect this schedule: 1) amount of snow, 2) crew size, 3) timing of the storm and 4) the time at which the Street Department gets the call to plow. The first two factors are self-explanatory. The deeper the snow is the longer it takes to clear, and if we have missing crewmembers we have to double up on routes, increasing completion times. Factors #3 and #4 are the big ones. If the snow level does not reach the 3" plow limit until 6 a.m. or if we don't get called out until 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. then things can get really ugly, especially if it is a big storm. We can plow the residential areas in the day during a storm, but it will take longer to complete the routes due to parked cars and traffic. If cars are blocking the street and the plows cannot get through safely then that street might not get plowed until the following morning.

Keep in mind that when a storm continues to drop snow that most streets only get plowed once a day. We can start plowing snow after three inches has fallen. If while we are plowing an additional six inches fall the start of the route would have six inches of snow on it and looking like we didn't plow at all. During the longer storms we get many phone calls asking why the streets have not been plowed. Most of the times the streets have been plowed at least once and will be plowed again if needed the following morning. We always do our best to run the routes again if time permits. However, most of the times it makes more sense to wait a few more hours until all cars are off the streets to run routes the second time.

Our operators have multiple jobs. When they complete their own plow routes they help out other operators with their routes, help with equipment maintenance, refuel equipment or help with snow hauling and sanding. An average snow day for our crew seems to be about 13 hours long. However, 14-hour and 15-hour days are not uncommon. In order for our crew to run our residential plow routes twice in the same day it would take at least 18 hours.

At this time our crew is too small to run the plows 24 hours a day. The sander is the only piece of equipment that is scheduled to run 24 hours.

Snow removal in the community core during the day is a totally different story. We have tried to move the snow around vehicles in the core and they get badly plowed in. Our plow equipment is 12 to 15 feet wide and visibility is limited.

To date we have not found a way to safely negotiate our large snow removal equipment around the traffic in the core. Plowing snow in the core becomes extremely dangerous after 8 a.m. There is little we can do in the core during the day while it is snowing but keep the sand trucks going until we can come in at 1 a.m. to clean up and haul the snow away.

In an effort to be as efficient as possible, the Street Department winter staff and equipment are set up to handle an average 6-inch storm, with snow being plowed from all city streets and snow being hauled from most critical streets in the core by 9 a.m. After a storm it usually takes several days to finish hauling snow and clean up. We try and keep winter maintenance costs as low as we can by using city trucks to haul snow whenever possible. With one snow blower and 9 contract trucks we can haul about 675 yards of snow an hour. One average 6-inch storm could produce 18,000 yards of snow, which would take us about four days to haul away. Last year on December 7 and 8 a storm dropped about 2 feet of snow and produced more than 45,000 cubic yards of snow for us to haul. For several days we were able to use two snow blowers and 15 to 16 trucks. Normally it would have taken 9 to 10 days to haul this much snow. By using two blowers we were able to do it in 6.

This year we are trying to run two blowers when we can. If we are unable it is because of limited staffing or equipment breakdown. The time it takes to clean up after a storm and winter maintenance costs are directly related to the amount of snow that falls each winter.

The Street Department's job of maintaining the streets in the winter can be very frustrating. Well meaning private contractors and landscapers push or blow snow onto the freshly plowed or sanded streets, causing the Street Department to go back and plow or sand it again. If we are not able to get back to that street the snow quickly packs and the travel lane is now rough, uneven and not sanded. After every storm people push snow into the streets from private property, causing the city to have to move and haul it away. This practice costs the taxpayers money and adds to the time it takes us to clean up. When people place their snow in the street it quickly packs and creates a high spot in the roadway. The high spot might not be noticeable to most until the temperature warms up and the street turns to slush. They have now created a problem for themselves and anyone who travels on that street. What might have been 6 inches of slush is now 12 or 14 inches of slush, which makes it extremely difficult to negotiate. So please be considerate to others and be responsible for your own snow.

Snowstorms during the day and large storms are a real challenge for cities to deal with. They push the crews and machinery to their limits. The Street Department's ability to safely and effectively maintain the streets during the day is greatly reduced due to traffic. We greatly appreciate your patience during these storms.

We are currently two people short and in the process of training the newer employees on plow routes. The routes are very detailed and take time to learn. It takes two to three winters before the operators become proficient on the routes.

We have been short handed for the last few winters. If it were not for the dedication of our current Street Department staff the quality of service would be greatly reduced to area residents. The street staff has stepped up to the plate to cover missing crewmembers just to make sure that the streets are safe. Yes, they do get paid overtime. However, after four or five long days of snow removal, exhaustion sets in and the money is secondary. It is their dedication that compels them to complete the task. The Ketchum Street Department will always strive to do its best to provide a quality service for the city of Ketchum and area residents.




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