By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)
October continues to remain unseasonably warm, but the Iowa DOT has started putting snow plows and salt spreaders on some trucks.
Winter Operations director Craig Bargfrede says they start their winter prep every year at this time. “We have to start installing the wedge tanks in the back of the truck that holds some of our liquid brine, installing the spreaders and what not on the back end of the truck, getting the plows out and getting them mounted. Making sure everything is set and ready to go,” Bargfrede says. They check all the controls to make sure the plows go up and down and the right amount of salt or salt brine is being spread.
Bargfrede says the big orange trucks are used year round, so they have to start getting some set up for winter operations. “We’re continuing to do summer time, fall maintenance activities, getting those projects wrapped up,” he says, “but yeah we still have to have a certain percentage of trucks ready to go should we get anything that we need to go out and do some application or do some plowing.”
Bargfrede has been overseeing winter operations for 12 years and says planning ahead is always the key.
“I think we got a good routine, yes. But you know, there’s always those crazy things that get tossed at you that make you kind of take a step back and go ‘hmm’, never had that happen before,” he says.
The wind storm last March in western Iowa that toppled power poles like dominoes is an example of Mother Nature throwing in something new. “When we had to close I-29 down, that’s the first time in my career that I’ve had to close down the interstate because we had live power lines down across the interstate. So obviously that was a huge safety issue,” Bargfrede says.
The DOT hires a lot of part-time workers to help them handle winter operations and Bargfrede says they are still looking to fill the ranks. “So if anyone is interested in coming to work for us part time, contact the nearest DOT garage. Last I saw, would have been the end of last week, I think we had about 175 of those 630 positions that have been not filled. So we’re getting a good start,” he says.
The DOT has 1,072 full-time equipment operators, mechanics, and supervisors to go along with the temporary employees. The equipment fleet includes 910 trucks, 40 motor graders, 33 tow plows, and 10 heavy-duty, self-propelled snowblowers.