While winter is definitely over for most states, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is continuing snow removal operations well into the warmer months in order to fully reopen several key “high altitude” highways.
[Above photo by Wyoming DOT]
The agency noted in a video that those specific highways are “impractical” to keep open in the winter due to the heavy volume of annual snowfall they receive.
Yet reopening them in the spring requires removing deep and drifted snow with specialized equipment, such as rotary plows that can remove four tons of snow straight down to where only an inch of the frozen precipitation remains on the asphalt.
[Editor’s note: The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials offers the Winter Weather Management technical service program as a way to help states improve their winter maintenance operations through a wide variety of resources.]
Calvin Pisano, a Wyoming DOT senior mechanic, noted in the video that snow removal operations have become more efficient in recent years with the addition of GPS equipped “snowcats” that can quickly cut down large drifts alongside the new rotary plows.
“They can take on a lot more snow at a faster pace and they don’t have as much trouble trying to cut through straight [walls] of snow,” he said in the video.
The agency said the remoteness of high altitude highways means mechanics like Pisano need to accompany the snow removal teams to ensure maximum equipment uptime.
“When they need help I am there to help them out get out of various equipment situations,” he said. “That allows them to just keep on going.”
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