Light snow fell over the weekend in Springfield reminding us that winter is just around the corner. And Springfield’s Public Works is preparing to help keeps streets clear for drivers. Ron Bailey, Superintendent of Streets says they started planning for snow removal in September. This means getting materials in order, which include salt, beet juice and whatever rocks the city decides to use. It also means making sure that vehicles are ready.
“We also have our drivers go out and run the routes in the vehicles to see if there are any issues or anything that needs to be fixed before snow season comes up because once the snow is on the ground you can’t see the road conditions so we go out before hand to make sure everything looks good,” Bailey says.
During a large snowfall, the city will run about 30 snow plows. There’s one driver to each plow as well as supervisors, coordinators and loaders making up a crew of about 34 to 35 people. During times of harsh road conditions each crew member usually works 12 hour shifts. As a whole, the snow plow drivers will cover about 850 total lane miles.
This year Public Works is implementing new automated vehicle locators (AVL). According to Bailey these will help with efficiency when it comes to solving issues.
“If we do have a call from police or the fire department or someone else talking about about a specific incident or are that needs to be addressed, we know who’s in that area and we can get them their fairly quickly,” Bailey said.
The machines can also monitor whether the snow plows are up or down and how much salt they are distributing.
More information about snow removal by the City of Springfield can be found here.