The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Plows ready to clear streets
New products on tap; salt supply steady for winter
Lorain’s road supervisors say they are ready for the snow when it flies this winter season.
City mechanics and drivers have prepared the trucks for plow duty in late fall and winter as 2017 ends and 2018 begins, said Lori Garcia, director of the city’s Public Property Department, and Mike Darmos, the street superintendent.
Weather happens and the amounts of rain, snow and ice determine how the city responds.
“Every storm is different,” Darmos said.
Top priority
The Public Property Department has a 30-page manual to guide workers and supervisors in their efforts to keep streets clear of snow and ice.
Arterial streets are the top priority for city workers to plow. Secondary streets are a secondary priority.
Side streets and cul de sacs are the third tier. When those areas are cleared, the city drivers turn their attention to alleys and parking lots, the fourth priority area for plowing.
The city manual and the list of streets to be salted both are posted at www. cityoflorain.org.
How to plow
When the plows go over the roads, residents are not necessarily going to see clean concrete.
The Ohio Department of Transportation uses a policy to create wet pavement, Darmos said.
People think that can apply to every roadway, Darmos said, but Lorain uses that standard for main streets and secondary streets.
“But when you get into the side streets and people see that there is snow on their street, ice packed snow or anything like that, they say their streets are not done,” Darmos said.
In the city, many resident complaints arise because
Lorain plows side streets but does not salt them, Garcia said.
“Why I think we get the complaints is because the side streets, we do not salt them,” Garcia said. “We plow them but it will not go down to concrete. So people see snow on it and they instantly call and tell us, ‘you didn’t plow my street.’”
Residents say, “the street’s not done,” Darmos said.
“Right, it is done,” Garcia “It’s not going to be concrete.”
Salt and plows
The city salt storage dome at the garage holds 1,100 tons while the city salt dome on Oak Point Road will hold about 1,400 tons.
Both are full and Lorain can order up to 3,500 tons of salt for the 2017-18 season, Garcia said.
Last winter, Lorain crews
used about 3,100 tons to spread on streets or make brine. That is a lot of salt but was lower than the city winter average of 5,500 to 6,000 tons, Garcia said.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the light dustings of snow sometimes cause city crews to use more salt than heavy snowfall. The light snowfall may melt and refreeze, creating ice and requiring more treating. For a heavy snowfall, city crews can pretreat a road then plow off the snow, Garcia said.
The Public Property Department fleet has 16 fiveton plow trucks. The city has two 10-ton tandem-axle trucks with wing plows that sit on the sides of the trucks to clear multiple lanes.
There are three 1-ton trucks and three working crew leaders have pickup trucks with plows.
The tandem trucks have implements to wet the salt when it comes of the spinner that spreads it over the roads.
Wetting the salt activates it to react with ice and to stay in place, so crews can be more efficient spreading it.
“Wet salt, where it drops, it stays,” Garcia said. “Dry salt scatters all over.”
Four of the trucks are outfitted with tanks and spray bars to wet roads with brine, which city workers mix with water and rock salt at the garage.
New methods
This year Lorain crews will try AquaSalina, a mixture of water with salt, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and potassium chloride. The added chemicals give the mixture a lower freezing point than just salt water, which helps prevent formation of ice on the roads, according to Nature’s Own Source, the company that mixes the product.
Lorain also will try another new product called “Aquaphalt” for pothole repairs, Garcia said.
Roadstone Production bills it as a “permanent, environmentally friendly asphalt patch.” The product uses an “eco-friendly binder” and hardens when wet, according to the maker.
The company guarantees the patch to last up to three years, Garcia said.
“It’s always worth a try,” Darmos said.
How to help
The city staffers offered two reminders to Lorain residents.
During heavy snowfall, the Lorain mayor or designee may declare a snow emergency. A parking ban prohibits on-street parking for residents who have driveways or other offstreet parking.
When city plow crews are out Lorain police will ticket or tow cars on the street.
“The more snow we get, the more important it is that they try to stay out of our way,” Darmos said. “Our guys are pretty good at what they do and it just makes their lives a little bit easier if there are clear paths up and down the streets.”
Drivers should be patient. Those who want to pass plows or beat them through intersections are creating hazardous situations for themselves and the city workers, Darmos said.
“Just be cautious of our guys,” he said.