Snow & Ice: Winter Cometh; Are you ready? This posting is fu...

Snow & Ice: Winter Cometh; Are you ready? This posting is fu...: Winter Cometh.....................Are you ready?  Better yet are the agencies we rely on to keep our roadways clear of snow & ice rea...

Snow & Ice: Winter Cometh; Are you ready? This posting is fu...

Snow & Ice: Winter Cometh; Are you ready? This posting is fu...: Winter Cometh.....................Are you ready?  Better yet are the agencies we rely on to keep our roadways clear of snow & ice rea...

Winter Cometh; Are you ready? This posting is full of historic photos and practical suggestions

Winter Cometh.....................Are you ready?  Better yet are the agencies we rely on to keep our roadways clear of snow & ice ready?

The good old days....in the beginning of my MDOT career I worked with guys who actually stood in the back of moving plow trucks and poured bagged salt on the roads.  They told me it freezing rain was miserable!  Imagine that.

Potholes are not a new event.  Neither is filling them.  Even the technology is reality the same.

 Here is a prime example of new old technology revisited using newer designs and improving snow removal operations.  Montcalm County Road Commission plowing US 131 in Michigan with two trucks; one  equipped with wing plow.  Truck on your left has right hand wing removing snow from shoulder and lane.  This tandem operation is clearing snow from swath of about 24 feet of roadway on each pass.

Mackinaw Bridge snow removal circa late 1950's or early 1960's with underbody scraper which is the Michigan snow removal preference. 

 Another "blast from the past" Michigan DOT picture.  Late 1930's or 1940's?

 Michigan DOT maintenance garage located in Moline, Michigan (just south of Grand Rapids on US 131).  I worked with guys who had worked out of this garage prior to it's closure which occurred when US 131 became a four lane U.S. highway and the garage was built in Plainwell. They told of unloading train car loads of salt in bags by hand.  The salt was then poured out of the back of a truck by hand (see prior photo and post).

 Sno-Cat with front plow and side mounted wing plow in Newberry, Michigan (upper peninsula) in early 1930's.  After a 60 hear hiatus, the wing plow returned in late 1990's. The Sno-Cat was a Caterpillar tracked dozer which was outfitted with cab for winter operations.

 This picture shows a 12 ft. wide front "mouse-eared" plow fully angled to to the right.  This plow in the position will remove snow from a 9'6" swath on every pass.  Keep in mind, one lane is 12' wide and a full shoulder is 8'.  

Addition of a 9' wing plow at this angle will increase the plowing swath to 14' (wing adds 5' 5").  Additional cost for wing plow is around $15,000.00 installed.  Adding this wing plow reduces to two  passes from what previously required thee passes for complete removal of snow from driving land and shoulder (20" total).  What MBA would not increase productivity and efficiency by 33%  by spending an additional $15,000.00 on a $250,000.00 dollar truck?  Wing plows were added to the Michigan DOT fleet due to vision and action by employees at the "grassroots" level (including myself), not by upper management or the director.  Although, the upper management and director at the time of implementation are to be commended for trusting in their employees to make the right decision and do the right thing.  Bureaucracies have a tendency to stifle creativity among it's employees.  

 The early beginning of snow plowing technology.

 The book I authored in which I share my experience as a Michigan at Michigan DOT in hopes of preventing others from reliving my mistakes and for them to be successful in their endeavors. I travel to many agencies at many locations where I see and hear from employees the issues they are struggling with; almost all which are covered in my book.  It doesn't have to be a struggle.  Couple of challenges:  get off the reactive "merry-go-round" where you are stressed from putting out fires; learn to become proactive.  And quit allowing fleet and operations divisions from being at "loggerheads", it isn't an ego contest folks.  Fleet provides the tools to operations they needed to provide services to the taxpayers (customers). Put the customers first; not the egos of your staff.  This book provides the information you need to make this happen.  Purchase a copy from Amazon or lulu.com.  Or contact me.

In this picture is a 1966 Michigan DOT plow truck. It is an International truck equipped with an in-line 6 cylinder gas engine.  477 or 501 cubic inch, I cannot remember which.  Here is wishing you all a safe and happy winter!