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Plow drivers aim to keep streets clear and safe

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By Correne Martin

This winter’s lack of precipitation has surely been a welcome aspect by the snowplow drivers as well as many residents of the region. Nevertheless, the age-old grievance that plows block driveways and reload sidewalks with snow after the shoveling is done is one that drivers and city personnel in Prairie du Chien hear nearly every time white flakes fly.

The truth is, plow operators are not out there launching snow onto driveways and sidewalks maliciously. Prairie du Chien Co-Manager of Public Works Terry Meyer recently explained the city’s snow plowing process and expressed that the drivers’ number one goal is to keep the streets clear and safe.

“Depending on the moisture content, how much snow we get and how fast it comes down, what we typically do is make a number of passes on the streets to get the snow off the road and onto the boulevard,” Meyer explained. “We are governed by the speed limit just like everybody else, but we also have to go fast enough to get it off the road. We don’t intentionally put snow in anybody’s driveway by any means. We try not to, but sometimes we just can’t help it.”

Every time a snow event is projected, either Meyer or Dan Titlbach, the street department’s leadman operator, monitor the weather radar in order to interpret the timing of the storm. As it approaches, plows are mounted and salt and sand are prepared.

“Our salt/sand mixture depends on what kind of conditions they’re talking,” Meyer said.

Once the snow arrives, drivers start with emergency routes and school areas first before moving on to their regular routes, including the municipal airport, the new Woodridge Acres subdivision and Industrial Boulevard on the far south end of town. The county plow operators take care of the Highway 18 Bypass.

Meyer said, the city’s minor roadways, alleys and its one-and-a-half miles of sidewalks and bike trails are tended to after the major streets are cleared. He noted that the city utilizes several pieces of equipment to remove snow from sidewalks and paths, including a utility terrain vehicle (UTV), skidsteer, snowblower or, in some cases, good ole shovels.

No matter the amount of snow received, six plow trucks, two loaders and a pickup with a plow push snow each time. As necessary, the road grader is used too, most often at the airport. Those on duty during storms include personnel from the street, wastewater and water departments. The hours they work, of course, depend on the timing and the intensity of the storm.

“If it’s during the day, we maintain the roads throughout the day. If it goes into the night, we go home around 3 p.m. and come back in at midnight and plow all the regular routes again. We don’t usually go home then until about noon, or as long as it takes to get the streets opened up,” Meyer said.

The city has historically created windrows of snow on Beaumont Road, Wacouta Avenue, Prairie Street and Blackhawk Avenue, from the railroad tracks to Main Street, and one block to the north and south of Blackhawk in the “downtown district.” Those streets are windrowed because there is no boulevard for snow storage. Drivers later return to blow that snow into dump trucks to be hauled away.

“We haul it at night when there’s less traffic. If it’s a large snow event, we hire extra trucks through Prairie Sand and Gravel to help haul it,” Meyer stated. “We don’t windrow anywhere else because it narrows the streets, it’s super time consuming and it costs a lot.”

For the city’s three new roundabouts, loaders are used and the snow is piled into the center of the circles. If the snow gets too high there, which could potentially impede traffic, some of it is removed. Also, Meyer pointed out that extra salt and sand is used on the roundabouts to make them safer.

After a snow event is complete, in cases where it has melted, crews go back out with plows in order to peel the slush from the streets, so it can’t freeze and become more problematic.

“When we’re doing that, we always make conscious efforts to open up driveways for people,” he added, “because we know it can be really heavy.”

Residents can help keep the roads safe when it snows by not putting their snow in the street, but instead shoveling it back into their own yards. The city’s municipal code prohibits residents from depositing snow, ice or slush into the “traveled portion of the roadway” (except within the downtown district where there’s no yard on which to place it).

“We’re trying to do our jobs as efficiently and safely as we can,” Meyer said. “We do our best each time it snows.”

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