The first heavy snows of the season have come to the Northern Lynn canal, and we have to get it off the roads. According to NOAA’s Juneau office, by Friday evening a snow accumulation of 8” will be followed by  cold North winds that will blow over the next few days. This means the snow won’t get off our roads on its own, and local crews have been at work since 5 this morning to clear the way. We spoke with Haines Borough Director Of Public Works Ed Coffland about what it takes to keep our streets passable.  It takes machines:

“One truck with a snow pillow on it, we have two loaders and two blades that we use , primarily we are using the blades and the loaders, but we have ample equipment, and pretty good quality, so we are in pretty good shape that way.”

On Friday morning four pieces of equipment were active, and he was considering sending a truck to spread sand. It helps to have experienced crews at work:

“ So you get used to a particular piece of equipment, and you know  the routes and where you can move the snow to and where you can’t move the snow to, you know what your machine will do and what it won’t do, it just takes some time.”

It helps to be prepared

“And of course we spend a lot of time in preparation for winter, getting chains, and getting all the snow plowing apparatus on the machines, there’s a lot of work that goes into that that nobody sees.”

And it helps if our cars aren’t in the way.

“Well it is important to keep the cars out of the way, it is really difficult for the guys to plow around cars, and of course there is always the potential for the cars to be damaged. And our borough code does require that you don’t park in the way of snow plowing equipment.”

There are borough crews working out there, DOT also clears some roads and the highway, and private contractors can also be dispatched.  The policy is to plow anything over a 6” accumulation, and today the crews are prepared to go over some roads twice if need be.

“You know it’s kind of a guessing game all the time as to exactly how much and when the snow is gonna come, and whether or not it’s gonna come, so we are just basically ready at all times, if it starts snowing overnight we’ll be ready at five in the morning to get out there and start working on it. So we really have to play it by ear and what actually happens, you can plan all you want, but then it is what it is.”

The next few days are forecast to be cold and clear, then warm up on Thursday with more snow expected then.