Huntsville’s plow drivers make winter travel easier

Winter has returned and, with it, Huntsville’s public works crews are on the road to help ensure you can get where you need to go. But their preparation for this task began more than seven months ago.

“For us, winter operations start in April,” says Steve Hernen, Huntsville’s Director of Operations and Protective Services. “As soon as we’re done plowing for the season, all the trucks are pulled apart and that’s a huge job. Winter is hard on our equipment. It’s in the worst conditions, in the salt and the sand. We know what it does to a car, just imagine what it does to equipment that’s on the road up to 12 hours a day.”

It takes the fleet mechanics from April through October to undo the damage wrought by the previous winter on the Town’s seven combination plow/sanders, two graders and three sidewalk machines.

As of November 1, all of the drivers are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through until April. “They don’t get weekends off. You might not see them working, but they can’t leave town,” notes Hernen. “From the time we call them, they’ve got 45 minutes to be in their piece of equipment and working.”

A change from last year: 24-hour coverage every day of the week. Last winter weekend coverage was part-time. Patrols are out every night keeping an eye on the roads, assessing known problem areas and keeping them sanded and salted, and calling in crews when too much snow accumulates. And sidewalk maintenance has been brought back in-house, with four seasonal parks and recreation staff now working through the winter.

“We now have full control over all of our sidewalks, including the ones in Port Sydney,” says Hernen. “Every morning at 4 a.m. there’s somebody out on the sidewalks doing a patrol to see if there are slippery spots, making sure the school zones are good.” Sidewalk crews are called in an hour-and-a-half to two hours after the plows so that they can clean up both accumulated snow and what the plows push off the roads. Sometimes they’ll need to do a second clean-up if the plows have made another run.

A Town of Huntsville sidewalk plow gets to work after a December snow squall passed through

Drivers wanted

Even though winter plowing has begun, the Town still needs drivers. “We have been looking since September for qualified, part-time drivers. We still have openings,” says Hernen. They need drivers who have experience with a big truck, for 40 hours per week until the spring. “The worst part of the job, and it’s no secret, is snow removal is done on weekends and nights. It’s not a Monday to Friday job; you’re on call and generally the crews are starting their shift around three in the morning if possible so that they are out ahead of morning traffic.”

The snow doesn’t always cooperate, though. “We can’t start until the snow basically stops and if we start when the morning commuters are going out, we have all kinds of problems. Commuters can’t get where they are trying to go, and we are trying to work around them.”

Drivers also have a maximum number of hours that they are allowed to work per day. “Last year we were running in 20 and 30-day stretches where the drivers didn’t have a day off. It’s a 12-hour shift in a truck. Jump in your car and drive to Windsor and back, not stopping for more than a coffee, and do that for 30 days straight and see how you feel at the end of it. They are tired. That’s the reason we are looking for some additional drivers to offer some relief.”

Details on the position and how to apply can be found here.

Each driver is responsible for their own route — the Town has 12 in total, nine of which are maintained by Town staff and three that are plowed by contract drivers with their own trucks.

All of the trucks in the Town’s fleet are now a combination plow/sander. “It’s a better use of resources,” says Hernen. “Drivers may need to head back to get more sand before they can complete a route, but now we’re not sending two trucks out on each run.”

To see the Town’s plow routes, click these links: urban routes, rural routes, sidewalk routes.

Each of the road routes are an eight to 10-hour run, which means that some roads will have to wait longer to be cleared than others. “Somebody’s first and somebody’s last. We try to do the priority areas first, the outlying areas last. Be patient and if you have a complaint, please don’t yell at the truck driver. Call the office and we’ll resolve it if we can.”

Hernen also notes that people often ask ‘Why don’t you have set times?’ “If somebody could tell me when it’s going to snow and when it’s going to stop and how much we are going to get, then we could figure it out,” says Hernen. “And keep in mind that if we’re getting a little bit of snow that’s supposed to change to rain, sometimes we want that snow to stay on the road. If you clean the road off and then the rain comes, then you’ve got a real mess.”

Public works staff watch the weather forecast throughout the day and assess the long-range forecast to be sure they are as ready as possible for what’s to come.

“We are hoping this year to get a better handle on snow removal with the additional drivers we are hiring,” says Hernen. “Last year was a bad winter; it got ahead of us and we just couldn’t catch up. This year we hope we’ve got a better plan in place.”

All of the sand in these piles (and more) will be used on Huntsville’s roads this winter

Hernen is hopeful that crews will be able to prepare and maintain a skating rink at Cann Lake this year, but stresses that it’s weather dependent in more ways than one. Poor weather conditions can prevent the lake from freezing to a safe depth. And an abundance of snowfall will have all hands on deck to ensure roads are clear and snow is removed in good time.

“We’ve got to make sure everything else is done first,” says Hernen. “It’s a tough decision to make and I realize people like the Cann Lake skating rink. We won’t know if it’s possible until we see what the weather brings.”

And remember:

• Give plows and sanders room. They make frequent stops and may back up to move to another part of their route. Be courteous, keep your distance behind them – the best place to be on a snowy road is behind a plow; the road ahead will be in worse condition – and move around when the driver motions for you to go ahead. A good rule for keeping your distance: if you can’t see the driver in his mirrors, he can’t see you either.
• Mark your garbage bins or mailboxes, particularly if you are a seasonal resident, so that they aren’t damaged by a passing plow. If they’re buried in the snow, the drive can’t see them.
• Keep your garbage bags and recycling bins back off the sidewalk on garbage collection day. It takes sidewalk crews longer to clear routes if they have to move these out of the way, and if they are perched on top of a snow bank a plow may end up pushing them down the road.
• Ask your children not to play on our build snow forts in roadside banks. Yes, it’s fun but plow drivers can’t see them if they are behind, or worse, inside a snow bank. For their safety, keep them away.
• Don’t park your vehicle on the street overnight. Vehicles that interfere with snow removal will be towed with the owner responsible for the sizable towing fee.

And if you have any Public Works concerns, contact the Town’s Customer Service Desk at 705-789-1751 or on the second floor of Town Hall.

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