Heavy snow, in addition to high winds and frigid temperatures, has challenged the city of Hillsdale’s winter maintenance crew this season.
“It’s by far the most intense winter since the `70s,” said Keith Richard, Hillsdale Department of Public Services director.
DPS Working Foreman Roger Paynes said the crew’s work is never finished in weather like this.
“You get the streets open and then the wind blows them back shut,” Payne said.
So much snow is accumulating that plow drivers are running out of space to store it at the side of the road, Richard said. While the department mainly uses plows mounted under their trucks, it has resorted to using front plows, which push snow higher, in order to push newer snow over old piles.
Normally, warm spells throughout the winter prevent such accumulation, but no reprieves have occurred this season.
In addition to finding somewhere to shovel old snow, the crew is having problems melting new snow and ice due to the consistent, sub-zero temperatures.
“The cold makes salt less effective,” Richard said.
The crew has since resorted to spreading sand on roads as well, to provide some sort of traction for drivers.
DPS has separate budgets for winter maintenance on major roads, local roads, and the section of M-99 within city limits, called the trunk line.
When the last budget figures came out on Jan. 1, DPS had used 22 percent of its $83,840 budget for major roads, 22.5 percent of its $47,840 budget for local roads, and 45 percent of the trunk line’s $22,785 budget.
The trunk line budget is set by the state of Michigan, but the other two are set by the city.
Richard warned that if storms continue at this rate, DPS will exceed its winter maintenance budgets. However, if this happens, DPS will simply shift funds from the non-winter road budgets to compensate, performing less sweeping or trash pickup, for example.
The eight-person DPS crew works a regular eight-and-a-half hour day shift year-round, performing various road clean-up services. Therefore, winter maintenance only increases overall costs if overtime work is necessary.
Outside the regular shift, if the police, who patrol 24/7, determine the roads are dangerous, they will call in part of the DPS crew to plow. Sometimes this results in 12-hour days when combined with the regular day shift.
Richard said that the crew has not worked much overtime this year, because storms have been conveniently timed around regular, daytime work hours.
Richard said the department’s winter maintenance fleet is aging. Many of the vehicles are from the ’90s. Optimally, every three years, DPS would replace one of the single-axle dump trucks that plow most of the roads. At that rate, the entire fleet would turn over every 20 years, about the life cycle of the trucks.
In Richard’s 13 years in Hillsdale, he has only been able to replace two trucks. So he’s two, single-axle trucks behind. Other equipment should be replaced as well, he said.
Payne emphasized that the winter maintenance crew works to provide the best road surface it can, given conditions. He said his crew enjoys the job, but that they’re growing weary.
“We’re ready for spring,” he said.
Richard agreed and said he appreciates citizens’ patience.
“We realize that at times it may seem to take longer than they believe it should,” Richard said, “but it’s something that we try to do our best every day.”