Snow plows (Midwest: closing, live in, vehicles)

[WyattE]

Since I live in the Midwest and we are in the midst of winter, it got me thinking about how does Wyoming's snow plow crew keep up with the snow and the vast lands and towns so far apart when it comes to handling the snow storms there. There are so many long stretches of roads to keep up with, so how do they actually do it?

[WyoNewk]

They do very well, I'd say. We've got a lot fewer roads than most states, for one thing. Of course a few mountain roads just close down for the winter, but most are kept open and are probably in better condition than those in the midwest where there's heavier traffic and more ice.

We sometimes get strong winds after/during a snow storm that will close down certain roads, but it's not a matter of not having enough snow plows; there are just times when no amount of fighting with Mother Nature will win the war. The roads are usually reopened in a matter of a few hours to a day.

My "home town" is near a busy part of I-80 in Iowa, and I think I've seen it close due to ice about as often as I've seen it close in Wyoming due to snow and high winds.

[sunsprit]

In a word, they DON'T. They do their best with the resources and manpower they have, but at one point or another, it's a case of Mother Nature overwhelming the ability to keep the road clear.

When the really strong winds pick up and start blowing the snow around into drifts across the highway, there's no way that a plow crew can keep the roadway clear. I've followed snowplows by a reasonable distance ... perhaps a mile, and the roadway was already drifting over again and disappearing.

In these extreme conditions, the WHP simply closes the roads. Years ago, they'd keep them open and allow folks (and the truckers) to keep going with discretion. Today, there's a lot more traffic and it only takes an accident/stranded vehicle to make the later road plowing very difficult, so the Patrol is much more pro-active about closing the highways before being at risk of manpower and their own lives to "rescue" people who should have not been out on the road.

Even when the wind dies down and the roadway stays "mostly clear", you still have to be cautious about driving through the places where it's obvious the wind drives the snow into drifts, or the shadow areas where the snow and ice can build up. It's not uncommon to have a nice sunny day with mostly clear roads that can be safely driven at 55-65 mph and suddenly encounter a pile of windpacked snow and ice and slush for a 1/4 mile at an overpass, or a off-camber curve in the roadway. You really don't want to hit that obstacle at 55-65 mph ... you'll be hydroplaning or sliding off the road in many vehicles. At night, it's even tougher, because you can't see ahead to the bad spots and slow down in a timely manner ....

[NVDave]

In addition to sunsprit's sage advice, allow me to offer this to people not familiar with the west:

In western states, because we are so dry, there are many county roads that are not paved. They're simply packed or graveled dirt roads.

During the summer, if you're a reasonably skilled driver, you can toodle down these roads at 50+ MPH without worry.

During the winter, some of them are not plowed at all, some are plowed when they're done with the paved roads, some are just packed down by the other traffic.

In some springtimes, some of them develop some pretty nifty mud pits. In some places in late summer, where they were muddy in the spring they develop "poof holes" - areas of deep dust that is as fine as talcum powder. When someone driving at 50+ MPH hits one of these, you can see the "poof!" miles and miles away across the range.

If you're looking at a map and thinking that the non-paved county roads are passable, or that they're a good idea even if they do get plowed and you're not familiar with the area or the people on the road, do us all a favor and delay exploring that road until the conditions are better. These roads won't be officially closed in inclement conditions, because the state and counties know that people live on these roads, and the people that do are prepared to handle the conditions - or they're smart enough to know when to stay put. So don't let the fact that one of these county/secondary-state roads is "open" when a paved road is "closed" lull you into thinking that taking the "open" road is a good idea...