As Adair County experiences blow after blow from storm systems bringing winter weather to the area, Department of Secondary Roads employees continue fighting blowing snow that causes drifting on the over 700 miles over rock roads in the county.
Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman put together numbers for the newspaper on how much has gone into snow removal for the two unusually severe storms recently, and the numbers are impressive.
On average, Secondary Roads employees each worked about 83 hours from Jan. 13 through Jan. 20. Illness caused shortages at times, but those who worked were working very hard. The total hours worked was about 2,100 hours, Kauffman said, with up to 25 employees.
“Special thanks to Schildberg Construction,” Kauffman said. “They helped us widen 130th Street by the quarry for several days last week. Also, thank you to the numerous people that helped out in various ways throughout the storm, whether it was opening up a road for neighbors, pulling out a stuck vehicle, etc.”
Kauffman said that snow removal efforts don’t always produce results. Mechanical failures, plugged fuel filters on equipment, flat tires, broken tire chains, sliding off the road, abandoned cars blocking the way, responding to emergencies and other dillemmas all make it a difficult hill to climb.
On a usual snowfall, motorgraders and dump trucks with plows are enough to handle snow removal, however large wheel loaders and other pieces of equipment were required for this snow storm because of how large drifts were.
Area schools returned to classes Monday, however buses were traveling on hard-surfaced roads only Monday and Tuesday because of continued hazards on rural roads.