Giddy up! It’s the snow plow "roadeo"
A round up, of sorts, brought together snow pushers from around Mid-America to test their mettle behind the wheels of their plows.
The early September event was part of the Iowa Maintenance Training Expo 2005, held at Iowa State University and was designed to challenge plow drivers.
Bob Dingman, chairman of the snowplow event committee, told the Des Moines Register some of the "roadeo’s" events were actually more difficult than driving on snow-covered roads, and added he couldn’t remember any team flawlessly completing the challenges and obstacles.
While sans snow and ice, 80 drive teams, the majority from local municipalities and public work departments, were graded and scored based on their ability to maneuver their plows through a variety of cones and other obstacles meant to simulate the rigors of winter snow pushing. In addition, one of the nearly dozen tests challenged participants to find five defects in a snow-removal vehicle within 10 minutes.
According to officials, participants took the competition seriously because the most valuable prize is bragging rights for the next year.
Big Winter for Liquid Deicers?
The liquid deicer industry has been particularly busy this past summer lobbying snow contractors to use more if its products this coming winter, snow industry insiders say.
Manufacturers have been playing up their liquid products – typically magnesium chloride or other chemical derivatives – as alternatives to, or for use in conjunction with, rock salt, snow insiders tell GIE Media’s Snow Magazine. News this past summer that rock salt would increase in price heightened snow contractors’ receptiveness to cost-cutting alternatives, such as the use of liquid deicers. This may have been the spark deicer companies needed to jump-start their campaigns.
Recent research conducted by GIE Media’s Snow Magazine indicates 76 percent of snow contractors will use, or plan to use for the first time, a liquid deicer as part of their ice fighting regimen during the 2005/2006 snow season.
While the ice-fighting products, in general, cost more than rock salt, liquid deicers purport to remain active at lower temperatures and, when applied correctly, stay viable for longer periods of time.
Likewise, they can be used as a pre-treating agent, providing snow contractors long-term cost, material and time savings. Liquid ice fighters, such as magnesium chloride, also claim to be a more environmentally friendly.
However, the Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wash., reported in late September that traces of chemical deicers were finding their way into local aquifers. While still at extremely low levels, the findings are prompting environmental officials to call for closer watch on the chemical’s presence, according to the report.
Regardless, one East Coast snow contractor says he made investments in liquid storage and application devices this past summer in order to position his snow fighting firm to compete for larger commercial accounts. "Initially we were afraid to make that final push," he says. "Then we realized we’ve got to do this."
White Winter For Some, Mild For Others
Last season’s inconsistent snowfall in some regions of North America left many snow contractors disappointed.
Northeast contractors may just get their snow wish this winter. That is, if the Farmer’s Almanac’s crystal ball is to be believed.
The annual publication released its forecast for the 2005/2006 winter, and it predicts wildly fluctuating weather patterns it’s dubbed a "Polar Coaster" ride.
"The East is on tap for a crazy ride, with the temperatures and weather initially leading into the winter season seeming mild, but the bulk of the winter will turn out to be unusually cold, with plenty of snow especially in the northern [states]," says Sandi Duncan, the publication’s managing editor.
For Canada, the almanac predicts mild temperatures and weather patterns at winter’s onset, developing into unusually cold temperatures and plenty of snow as the season wears on, especially in Quebec, New Brunswick, the Maritimes, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is predicting a warm winter in the western Canada, and snow and cold periods for snow contractors living in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The 189-year-old publication, which predicts a 16-month forecast that begins in September, boasts an accuracy rate of between 80 percent and 85 percent.
Explore the January 2006 Issue
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