By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
By Wednesday afternoon, it wasn’t hard to find some pretty exhausted people. In their respective garages in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, crews at work on the roads since early Monday were contemplating a long rest and at least a temporary return to normal life.
Richard Terrell, operations manager with Chapel Hill Public Works, said crews are looking forward to a little time off. “We think we’re in pretty good shape,†he said.
The town will keep at least one truck at the ready, he said, to work with school officials to clear up trouble spots.
Like last year, which saw its share of storms, this has been an unusually stormy early winter.
“It’s been a tough year already,†said John Howell, Orange County maintenance engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation. “We started winter the first week of December and it seems like we’ve had a storm every week including Christmas.â€
Howell said the crews working the 32 department trucks along with seven contract trucks know full well people are counting on them.
“We’ve got a lot of dedicated people.â€
The DOT’s strategy in Orange County focuses on 372 lane miles of key thoroughfares designated as “bare pavement routes.†They include the interstates, U.S. 15-501, N.C. 54, N.C. 86, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Franklin Street and areas around UNC Hospitals, including Manning Drive and South Road.
“We keep our resources on those routes until they’re clear,†Howell said. After that, he said, crews start working on the secondary roads.
In the most recent storm, temperatures made it a struggle to achieve either goal.
“We had a lot of black ice in places that refroze overnight,†he said Wednesday.
David Poythress, streets superintendent of the Town of Carrboro, said the town has been running two crews of six people on 12-hour shifts to keep the roughly 80 lane miles of town-maintained roads clear. Another crew of between three and five works on the town-owned facilities and the sidewalks.
Poythress said that during the storm, the strategy is to restore the bus routes and then turn to the secondary roads. Like Howell, he said temperatures in the upper 20s made it hard to clear some places.
“The secondary roadways are the biggest challenge,†Poythress said. “Some more than others.â€
And like their counterparts at the DOT, the crews in Carrboro have been busy this season.
“These guys have been putting in extra hours since early December. Some of them had to cut short their holiday,†Poythress said. And since those who live in Alamance or Chatham counties or northern Orange can’t get back and forth reliably, some have spent their off hours camped out at Public Works.
“It’s about the only safe way to do it,†said Dennis Fone, who slept on a cot at the Public Works offices rather than risk a drive back to his home in Zebulon. “It’s also about the only guaranteed way to be back for the next shift.â€
All that comes at a cost, Poythress said, as does the 15 tons of salt and 10 tons of sand spread on Carrboro roads on Monday and Tuesday. The towns have yet to assess the financial impact of this storm, but the winter of 2010-11 is shaping up to be a costly season.
Terrell said it will be a while before the tally of the most recent storm is known, He expects a cost analysis of the December storms sometime this week and won’t be surprised if it shows the town already over budget for supplies like sand and salt.
“We don’t budget a lot for it, knowing that some years we get a lot of bad weather and some years we don’t,†he said. This year, he said, it’s a case of the former.
Extra brining
Poythress said one thing that has helped this year is increasing the use of brine prior to the storms. Carrboro started using it on some roads in 2004, he said, and saw positive results, particularly in the most recent storm.
“We found that with certain events, it makes a difference,†he said. If the storm starts off with a lot of rain, he added, then at least his crew gets in some practice. Fortunately, this one started with snow.â€
In addition to keeping ice and snow melted initially, the brine-treated roads are easier to plow and clear off after a big event.
Terrell said that Chapel Hill has been increasing its use of brine as well. In the most recent storms, he said, the town has not only treated primary roads and steep hills but extended pretreatment to almost all the town’s secondary roads.
“It’s more environmentally friendly and about 10 times more effective as anti-icing,†he said.
ROADS AND EQUIPMENT
DOT in Orange County
39 trucks (32 state-owned and seven contract trucks) equipped with plows and salt spreaders. Crews focus on 372 lane miles of primary roads first, then turn to several thousand lane miles of secondary roads.
Carrboro
Four dump trucks fitted with plows, two of them equipped with salt spreaders and one motor-grader. Approximately 80 lane miles of town-maintained roads.
Chapel Hill
12 plow trucks, five box spreaders, three brine distribution trucks, one town-owned spreader and two contract spreaders. Approximately 350 lane miles.
