Page 38 • September 21, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Snow & Ice Section • Construction Equipment Guide
DOTs Put Variety of Equipment to Work Removing SnowRange, must be able to rely on experts doingthe grunt work of clearing the roadway.
UDOT’s snow team includes roughly 481full-time plow drivers, plus 80 constructionstaff and seasonal employees with commer-cial driver’s licenses who can operate snow-plows. The statewide fleet consists of 508snowplow trucks, 11 self-propelled snow-blowers and 13 TowPlows.
Wasatch Peaks Take aHammering Each Winter
On the eastern outskirts of Salt Lake City,I-80 winds through Parley’s Canyon andtoward the self-same-named Summit at7,120 ft. Here the interstate is the highestpoint for the roadway in Utah — one that isregularly buried by deep snow each season.
“Last year was a pretty heavy winter forus,” explained Daniel Page, UDOT’s direc-tor of Maintenance, Asset & FacilityManagement. “Between Parley’s, LittleCottonwood and Big Cottonwood canyons[all near Salt Lake City] is our most concen-trated area for snowfall. It’s not uncommonin Parley’s Canyon and the other areas to seethree- to four-inches an hour for a consider-able amount of time.”
Page said UDOT relies heavily on snow-
plows mounted on big dump trucks, as wellas trailer-mounted plows.
UDOT prefers to employ the echelonplowing method on many freeways, whereseveral dump-truck snowplows move alongthe road in a staggered formation. Pagedescribed the practice as being much fasterthan what can be accomplished in one passby a single snowplow. UDOT promotes ech-elon plowing because it clears the majorroutes quickly and efficiently, he said.
The combination of deep snow and steepgrades can cause problems with a plow oper-
ation, but for those trucks designated towork in the higher elevations, UDOTmechanics boost their horsepower andoutfit them with higher torque range,Page explained.
Throwing, Blasting Snow Also Utilized
In the UDOT yard at Kamas, dueeast of Salt Lake City, the agency has
big, loader-mounted snow blowers, impera-tive for moving snow off the area’s mountainroads. Page said these machines are Kodiakmodels that “are big, turbo-charged, jet-firedvehicles that our guys use to throw around aserious amount of snow.”
“Usually, we take them up into our moun-tain passes that are closed seasonally. Then,as spring and summer approaches, we use
see SNOW page 40
SNOW from page 37
Caltrans’ job is to keep traffic moving safely on an interstate built to cross theSierra crest at the Donner Summit, two miles north of the pass itself, at an ele-vation of 7,240 ft.
While many operators of snowplows, spread-ers, blowers and other equipment work sea-sonally, for the professionals in charge ofmaintaining that equipment, it’s a year-round job.
Caltrans photo
Caltrans photo
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