Then it’s time to look beyond the yard and consider the street or road.

The one you’re about to drive on to get to school, work, the store or yet another dinner at Aunt Matilda’s house.

Keeping that street or road plowed is the result of a lot of finely tuned and timed work by both city of Fort Dodge crews and Webster County Roads crews.

Brett Daniel, director of public works for the city of Fort Dodge, oversees the work in town.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
The city of Fort Dodge uses a front-end loader with a plow blade installed to clear snow from the downtown area’s streets and parking spots.

What exactly that ends up being depends on the snow event.

“They’re all a little different,” Daniel said. “The standard first priority is to cover the hills, bridges and main roads. That’s always where we start.”

He said the city is divided into five zones. Each zone is assigned two plows during heavier snows, one for lighter ones. The downtown area is cleared with a loader that has a snow blade on the front, it’s also used in some of the cul de sacs.

For a very light snow, less than an inch, the city usually does not plow the residential streets.

A number of factors influence whether to plow, sand, salt, or apply salt brine.

“Wind, temperature, the type of precipitation all make a difference,” Daniel said. “The road temperature, it all plays a role.”

They also work closely with law enforcement. Officers on patrol will often spot and report trouble areas then pass that information on.

They also have to work whether it’s Christmas Day or an ordinary Wednesday.

“Holidays really don’t effect us much,” Daniel said. “We’ll run if it becomes a safety issue.”

Whether to sand, salt or brine is also a decision that’s made for each snow event based on conditions and experience. Sometimes, they have to hedge the bet a bit.

“We try to use a mix when we know one isn’t the perfect fit,” Daniel said.

He said the city budgets for 1,800 tons of salt for each season. Not all of that is delivered at once. They try to schedule deliveries so the full amount doesn’t get contaminated or clump up from moisture. They also maintain an ample stock of sand.

Webster County Engineer Jamie Johll said crews follow a well defined plan.

“We have a snow removal plan that we follow very diligently,” Johll said. “The paved roads are our number one priority until they’re clear and we’re able to keep them clear.”

He said there’s about 300 miles of pavement in the county and about 850 miles of gravel surface roads.

For crews working on the gravel road, the technique is a little different.

“They have to raise the plow up an inch or two off the surface,” he said.

There’s a good reason for that. If the surface were scraped directly, the gravel would end up in the ditch along with the snow.

They also have a special tool that can be mounted on the front of their road graders to deal with ice. It resembles a very large comb.

“It has one inch carbon steel tines,” Johll said. “They’re for roughing up the ice.”

The safety of the crews is also a high priority. Conditions in rural areas are frequently worse than in town and if they’re bad enough, the crews are pulled off the road.

“If it’s no longer safe,” he said. “The biggest factor is visibility. If it’s whiteout conditions we’ll pull our guys off the road.”

That call is made by one of the two foremen. They join the crews on the roads.

“If it’s too dangerous they’ll make that call,” he said.

Removing snow from over a 1,000 miles of roads takes a lot of equipment.

“We have 30 tandem axle dump trucks with plows,” Johll said. “A lot of those also have belly blades. We also have 14 motor graders. Webster County is bigger than most in size and population. We are the fourth highest in Iowa in terms of vehicle miles traveled daily.”

The work starts early with one of the two foremen checking conditions at 2 a.m. They also view video footage from the cameras located at each of the county’s eight sheds.

Crews hit the roads about 4 a.m. and will run till 6 p.m.

Not every driver will encounter the same conditions.

“Between Dayton and Clare there can be quite a difference,” Johll said.

Plowing snow is heavy duty work for the trucks. Both maintenance departments are kept busy during the plowing season.

“We have breakdowns, wear and tear,” Daniel said. “We do have more maintenance. We do the best to try get through. To help us with that, we have a couple of great mechanics.”

He said there are several keys. Alert drivers who spot minor problems before they become big problems and making every effort to keep the salt off the trucks.

“We get that salt off the trucks as quick as possible,” he said. “Within 48 hours is best.”

Vehicles parked along the street they’re trying to plow is another problem crews in Fort Dodge have to deal with.

That’s where the public paying attention for a declared snow emergency is important.

“Residential snow ordinance takes effect anytime there’s more than two inches of snow,” Daniel said. “You can get towed after two inches of snow.”

There’s a separate ordinance covering the downtown area. Getting cars out of the way downtown is even more critical than it is in residential areas.

“We have to get those cars out,” Daniel said.

In most parts of town, the plowed snow ends up along the street.

That’s not possible downtown. Crews scoop it up and haul it away in dump trucks. It doesn’t go far. The city has a site under the Third Street Bridge for it.

Some commercial streets have little room for snow piles, Fifth Avenue South is one example of that.

If there’s enough snow, it too gets hauled away.

“It’s determined by how much storage there is,” Daniel said.

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