PLOWING BY THE NUMBERS
85 – the number of miles of Westbrook streets to clear of snow.
35 – the number of miles of sidewalk to clear of snow.
17 – the number of pieces of plowing equipment the city owns.
2,500 – the total tonnage of road salt bought for this winter.
Any day now, the crews of Westbrook Public Services will tackle the tough job they are most known for – plowing snow.
During the rest of the year, the department’s 35 employees are busy mowing, landscaping, pruning, painting street lines, repairing and maintaining vehicles, you name it. But the winter is where they face down the worst of Maine’s weather.
It takes a lot of preparation and work to keep Westbrook’s 85 miles of streets and 35 miles of sidewalk clear of snow during the winter. There are 17 pieces of plowing equipment to get ready and tons, literally, of salt to buy, as well as sand.
And, finally, when the storms come, everything else stops. Drivers get in their trucks, and they don’t stop until after the snow stops falling.
The employees at Westbrook Public Services pride themselves on keeping the roads as clear as possible during the winter, according to Arty Ledoux, operations supervisor. To do that, the public services staff has to be ready and efficient.
“Drivers understand that during the winter they’re going to work,” John Emerson, public services deputy director, said in an interview last week. In fact, they work 12 to 14 hours at a time, if need be, he said.
Preparation
Before the winter even comes, the department orders its road treatment products. This year, the department purchased about 2,500 tons of salt at a current price of about $45 per ton, and about 2,500 cubic yards of a sand-and-salt mixture at about $7.50 per cubic yard, according to Emerson.
The sand mixture is stored on the grounds at the public services garage, while the salt stays at a facility in Portland that Westbrook shares with that city. For each storm, the department can expect to use about 60 to 80 tons of salt and 60 to 70 cubic yards of sand mixture.
Emerson said the trend lately is to use 100 percent salt, instead of the 4-to-1 sand-to-salt mixture, because salt clears the road faster. If a layer or two of salt can clear the road to the asphalt, it’s easier to keep the road clear with the plows, said Emerson.
A layer of sand mixture will provide traction, but snow and ice on the road will continue to thaw and freeze as temperatures vary. It’s particularly difficult during rush hour, when cars pack down the snow and make it harder to melt, said Emerson.
Tom Eldridge, department director, said it’s imperative to be ready with all the salt and sand and have equipment up and running before any hint of snow comes.
“You want to have all your treatment product ready about now,” he said last week.
Also, the staff needs to make sure all the plows in the fleet are up and running. One of the most important things, according to Emerson, is to keep the trucks clean and painted because of the corrosive nature of salt. While salt is easier on the roads, it’s worse on the trucks.
Into action
Once the department learns of a coming storm, either from weather channels, Web sites or local police, the staff goes into action. Four on-call drivers and a supervisor immediately go to the public services garage. If the storm looks like a big one, additional supervisors and drivers will come in, and the group will hold a meeting to discuss a plan of attack.
While the basic plan for storms is the same, each storm is different and requires a different approach, depending on temperatures, the amount and rate of snowfall, the time of day, and traffic situations and road conditions, among other variables.
The main variable to work out, according to Emerson, is how much salt to put down. Once the on-call supervisor determines that, the computer in each truck is programmed accordingly. Each truck, a dump truck with a bed for salt or sand mixture, has a computer-controlled spreader that controls the amount of salt laid down. Each truck also has a special tank that can mix in liquid calcium, which acts as a supercharger for the salt, particularly in colder weather.
Once they hit the road, the drivers lay a first layer of salt down on the roads. Each follows a preplanned route, one of 14 in the city, and works the main roads on their route first, like Main, Stroudwater and Spring streets. If the storm is more than what four drivers can handle, others are called in to help. If the storm is bad enough, all the city’s road plows could be out, with the three sidewalk plows in action as well.
The purpose of this initial salt spray is to put a layer of salt down on the streets between the asphalt and the falling snow. That layer melts the new snow and makes it harder for it to collect on the road, said Emerson.
After the salt layer is on the road and the snow has built up to an inch or two, the drivers lower the plows and start scraping. This is where the work really begins, especially during a big storm.
Drivers plow the main roads on their routes to keep them as clean as possible, and then attack the side streets as they can. They keep plowing until the storm ends, whether it’s two hours or 20 hours. Emerson said the department tries to rotate the drivers if possible, but many times they’ll end up plowing for 12 to 14 hours without rest.
While the drivers plow, the supervisors monitor the weather radar back at the department’s home on Saco Street. They stay in constant radio communication with the drivers, letting them know what’s happening with the storm.
The clean-up afterward
From their station at the public services facility, the supervisors try to anticipate when the storm will end. As the end approaches, they inform the drivers, who then pull up the plows to put down a final layer of salt. After the storm finally ends, the drivers do a last scrape of the roads, and everyone hopes for warmer weather and some sun.
“This time of year, our best friend is the sun,” said Emerson. “The sun makes salt work so much better.”
When the storm has gone for good, the last step is for drivers to empty their trucks of the salt or sand mixture and use them to haul off the snow piled up in parking lots and along sidewalks.
“Picking snow,” they call it – using a snow blower to blow the snow into the back of the truck. After picking it up, they dump it either at a special dumping ground at the public services facility or at a site on the Sappi Fine Paper property.
“Years ago, the snow was dumped into the Presumpscot River,” said Emerson. “That’s no longer kosher.”
When the cleanup is done, the drivers bring the trucks back to the garage and clean them up.
And then, they get ready to do it all again.
City plowers gird for winter
City plowers gird for winter
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