Date: Fri 15-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Highway-crew-weather-winter

Full Text:

This Is Proving To Be A Tricky Winter For The Highway Crew

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Newtown's highway crews are finally getting a chance to catch up on their

sleep after spending the past two weeks clearing town roads.

Warm weather is expected to finally arrive this weekend.

So far, the area has not been hit with a tremendous amount of snow, but icy

conditions on roads have lingered for a good part of the past two weeks.

Plowing the snow off the roads was easy. The hard part was keeping them free

of ice. Instead of coming all at once, the dangerous conditions have lingered,

forcing the highway department to work day and night. After spending most of

last week fighting the ice, it was back to battling the snow last Friday. Once

the snow stopped, the plows continued to stay with it, ensuring that roads did

not freeze up.

"The icy conditions linger and they re-occur depending on the temperature,"

explained Public Works Director Fred Hurley. "When the temperature stays below

freezing that's actually better than when it's going up and down. The

freeze-thaw cycle is what causes the most problems."

Highway Department director Joe Tani said the combination of snow and rain

causes slush, which can cause nightmares for drivers and plows.

"You have to get the slush off before it turns back to ice or you're in

trouble," he said.

The highway department has already used more than 1,530 cubic yards of sand

and 383 tons of salt.

"That's a fair amount for only having to go out a few times. A lot of it is

due to freezing rain and sleet. You end up sanding multiple times," Mr Hurley

explained.

The constant freezing and melting of the precipitation is what causes

potholes, a problem the highway department will be addressing in the spring.

Over the past two weeks, the highway department has also had difficulty

keeping Newtown's dirt roads from freezing as the rain kept washing the sand

off the roads. The department received several calls from dirt road residents

asking why it had let their roads turn to ice.

"It does us no good to sand those roads because it gets washed off before we

reach the end of the road," Mr Hurley said.

When Newtown's roads are wet, monitoring the weather becomes of utmost

importance. When the mercury starts to drop, the crews need to be ready to go.

During the day, Newtown's crews keep a close eye on road conditions. At night,

the police department checks the roads and contacts Mr Tani if streets become

icy.

The winter months are the toughest for Newtown's highway crew, but, as Mr Tani

points out, the 25 men understand it is all part of their job. They're good at

it, too.

"I'll put my guys up against anybody. They get the job done," Mr Tani said.

During one storm this winter, Mr Tani said he awoke at 1:30 am and saw that it

was sleeting. It wasn't too bad out, yet, but he figured it was best to get a

good jump on the roads. He called Mr Hurley and the crews were out less than

an hour later.

"We got out that early before the bulk of the sleet and snow hit. It made

cleaning the roads a lot easier," Mr Tani said.

The head of the highway department said he is always in contact with his four

crew chiefs: Chuck Botsford, Milton Adams, Butch Sears and Ray Bresson.