City of Centerville issued the following announcement on February 1.
Winter Storms
Centerville Public Works Supervisor Marty Tackett has 33 years of public works experience, 15 of those within the 11 square miles of the City of Centerville. The leadership team in the street department of public works are at the helm for snow and ice removal, and they shared some insight into this essential – and complicated – process.
VIDEO: Hear how a Centerville plow driver clears the roads
What are the key elements of a comprehensive winter plan?
Every operation must be efficient, effective and safe. In its purest form, the program fits the mission of our City: delivering exceptional services through thoughtful governance. We establish a comprehensive winter operations plan and a formal training program for all personnel at the start of the season. We calibrate our trucks and make sure we have adequate supplies. People often think snow removal is just driving plow trucks around until the snow is gone. It is so much more involved than that. Winter operations entail many uncontrollable factors. Many times you can plan for an event and duplicate it year after year. Storms just do not work that way. There is no way to have a definite plan. We have to be flexible and prepared for anything.
What sort of planning is involved for each event?
We are glued to updates if any sort of dangerous weather is forecasted. We have an assigned point of contact on our leadership team for the duty phone with a direct line to the Centerville Police sergeant on duty. We make sure every main line truck is loaded at least 12 hours prior and ready to go out the door immediately if weneed to call people in overnight. The duty supervisor will set an alarm in the middle of the night to check conditions. If we have all the elements – air temperature, road temperature, humidity and dew point – we have to react now. We cannot afford to wait for there to be an accident.
We provide a snow packet to drivers at the start of every season that outlines agreements we have with local jurisdictions. We do trade-offs with Sugarcreek Township and Greene County, for example. Each driver also has contact lists for everyone with radio numbers, maps that show all seven routes within the city and lists of public parking lots, sidewalks, hiker-biker trails and schools as well as where we should put the plowed snow in those spots.
How do you tackle snow and ice removal?
We use a three-tier system: first priority is main thoroughfares, second is what we call neighborhood “collector” streets that function as arteries between major roads and third is residential streets. Our trucks get to those as soon as we can. We are in constant communication with drivers on the seven routes throughout the City. We run GPS on all of our vehicles so we can track the progress of our drivers.
We are fortunate to have two wing-plow trucks in our community. That doubles the width of the plow and lets us work a large area relatively quickly.
Public Works has a meeting prior to any major event. A lot of times, we are bouncing ideas off of staff and vice versa during roundtable conversations. It is very important to have consistency within our approach to treatment. We do not ever want conditions to vary within corporation lines where a driver might get too comfortable and be caught off guard.
What is at stake?
When we do our job, our community travels seamlessly, and it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness and value. Believe me, people would notice if we did not do our job. Clear roads protect lives and commerce. The economic impact of snow-related closures far exceeds the cost of timely snow removal. A one-day major snowstorm that shuts down roads can cost the state between $300 and $700 million dollars in direct and indirect costs. Not to mention, treating roads effectively and utilizing effective plowing reduces injury crashes by up to 88%.
Do you have any tricks of the trade to share?
It is important to understand the difference between de-icing and anti-icing: the distinction between being reactive and proactive. Salt alone melts snow effectively, but more is required to achieve the same result if the temperatures are colder. This is why we utilize liquid de-icers along with our salt applications to be good stewards of the budget and the environment. Too much salt wastes time and money and can have a negative effect on the environment. Our crews have to be thoughtful and diligent.
Our drivers pre-wet salt with a brine mix or de-icing chemical that keeps the salt where we want it on the road and conserves our material. It also makes it more effective. At 20 degrees, one pound of dry salt will melt 8.6 pounds of ice. With pre-wetting, we can usually triple the salt’s effectiveness.
Any final thoughts?
Centerville Public Works really cares about our community. The drivers work long hours – often overnight—to make sure people and properties are safe. We do not send people home until all the streets are as clear as we can get them and the refuse and recycling has been collected every day. We take pride in delivering exceptional service.
Original source can be found here.
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