Athol crews take a slower pace with heavier snowfall

ATHOL – Speaking Sunday morning, Assistant Director of Public Works Paul Raskevitz said that Monday’s heavy snow would necessitate a slower pace of road clearing.

Despite having to move at a somewhat slower pace, however, Athol roads were in relatively good shape in the wake of the nor’easter that struck the Northeast from Sunday into Monday.

“We’re down one truck right now, but that’s not really catastrophic for us,” he said. “We’re usually down one or two pieces. We’ve been in pretty good shape these past couple of winters because the Capital Program Committee has really helped us get some newer equipment in recent years.”

Prior to snow moving into the area, Raskevitz told the Athol Daily News his department had 500 tons of salt on hand to battle the storm.

“We did have to go out and treat [the roads] this [Sunday] morning,” he explained, “so we’re not going to have to pre-treat this afternoon. The residual salt should keep the snow from bonding to the roads.”

His request to property owners is the same as it has been following previous storms.

“Just try not to push all your snow out into the street after we’ve gone by, because that just causes all the cars to pack it down and that creates icing in front of your house and in the road,” Raskevitz said. “Once we’ve already gone by for the final time, these guys are going to want to go home and get some sleep.”

And rest, he said, is at a premium for his employees.

“This looks like a long, drawn-out storm,” Raskevitz explained, “and it’s been a very long winter for them. The last time we had a winter like this was 2015-2016. They’ve been working a ton, and they’ve really been knocking it out of the park, in my opinion.”

The assistant DPW chief said it normally takes four and five hours to plow one route one time.

“That’s on average, people who don’t have the luxury of working from home or being able to stay home have to get out and go to work,” said Raskevitz. “So, they’re on the roads at the same time we’re on the roads plowing; so, what normally takes four or five hours overnight sometimes during the day will take more than six.”

Raskevitz added that the amount of snow that needs to be on the road before plowing starts has changed over the years.

“Years ago, it used to be four to six inches. We’d salt and sand up until we had about four inches or so, and then we’d start plowing,” he said. “Now we don’t wait nearly that long. We’ll be out there with an inch and half of snow….It’s more efficient. It gets it off the road. The salt, the treatment, actually works from the bottom up and if we can keep that brine on the road, we keep scraping off the snow on the top. So, we scrape a lot more than we used to years ago.”

He also said new plow designs has also made the work of plowing more efficient.

“Pretty much every truck we have has a power angle plow, which makes it easier for the intersections. Our blades are not just regular carbon steel blades anymore; we use sectional blades that actually conform to the road a lot better. So, we’re able to scrape down a lot further than we used to.”

Each blade can cost upwards of $2,800 “versus the $300 we used to pay, but they last up to 10 times as long.”