Hi-Line Living: Weather won't cut road crews a break

The winter was like just one big blizzard for Hill County Road Department Supervisor Andy Hanson and his 19-member crew.

"It just seemed like it was never ending," he said.

The heavy snowfall, subzero temperatures and fierce winds of this winter led to Havre being named by Weather Channel as the city that had the worst winter weather of 2017-18.

For Hanson and his crew, it was a source of stress, frustration and sleepless nights, he said. Department employees would make progress in clearing the roads of snow, only to have more snow and wind erase that progress.

"We never had really any down time to sit around and watch the snow. We were literally plowing nonstop," he said.

Hanson said crews could only plow snow for a couple hours in the morning, before rising temperatures would lead to rapid snowmelt and muddied rural roads.

The department is responsible for maintaining at least nine bridges, but nothing happened to them, he said. Most of the bridges are on main roads that were plowed.

The first snowfall of the season came in the Oct. 2-3 storm that hit the region, causing power outages and damaging infrastructure.

The October storm was not too bad, Hanson said.

"We plowed a few roads," he said. "We did not plow as much as we should have, but it warmed up right away and melted away."

Hanson said the winter itself was tiresome and stressful for employees, with department employees working long hours,

Employees would return to the shop, go home and then the sheriff's office would call to say that someone was stuck and the road needed to get plowed out.

"There was a time where you would be plowing along, you would look behind you and the wind is blowing it right back behind you," he said.

The flooding that now grips the county is a whole different type of disaster to deal with than the snow, Hanson said.

A lot of overtime was logged this winter Hanson said. Road department employees typically work four days a week and anything more than that is overtime, and this winter for at least six to eight weeks throughout the season they worked six-day weeks. Employees would take shifts with four stationed up west, and one on call for emergencies.

"It's pretty nerve-wracking when all you see is white inside of a big machine like that," Hanson said.

The team would try and take off a Friday or Saturday to regroup and then come to work if something essential was needed.

Many motorists would try to brave the roads in the harsh weather conditions only to find themselves stranded.

Tow truck operators and the Hill County sheriff's deputies would call up during a snowstorm and tell him that a vehicle was stuck, Hanson said.

Clear Creek Road and another road known as "roller coaster hill" near ProBuild were closed several times.

Nevertheless, barricades blocking off the road were often stolen or motorists would continue to try and travel those roads, paying no attention to warnings.

Hanson said the cut across going from Highway 2 to 87 is a shorter route for some drivers and although the first part of it would appear clear at times, as soon as they would get to the bottom of it it was full of snow. They would keep going and then get stuck.

When someone gets stuck, Hanson said the sheriff's office calls the road department to let them know about the situation. The department will go out to plow the road open to get them out if a medical emergency is involved. However, for liability reasons the department employees usually cannot hook up vehicles lodged in snow to county equipment.

Drivers must call a tow truck at their own expense to get their vehicle out, he said

One of the biggest dangers was people abandoning their vehicles on the road after being unable to make their way down it. Hanson said that can prevent that area from getting plowed. Low visibility and snow drifts also presented dangers to crew members,

For the department, the snow packed roads have made a major dent in their budget with department spending $300,000 just on employee salaries and fuel. The department also had to cover the cost of repairing equipment.

"In one week we had three machines go down," Hanson said.

A motor blew in one Cat grader, and a circle drive on another grader exploded. The tires on a third machine also blew out in 30 below weather, he said.

The cost of fuel was the biggest expense, Hanson said.

Each machine could end up burning as much as 100 gallons of fuel every day it runs, he said.

"If you have eight graders going at one time, if you do, and then two or three loaders and a doser. That is a lot of fuel," he said.

Work on the road, though, does not stop after the snow has been cleared.

The winter has taken its toll on the roads. Hanson said. When snow is plowed on gravel roads, a bit of gravel is pushed off of them, further degrading roads that are already in rough shape.

He said some roads that had some gravel have none and some that had a good amount are bare.

Further compounding the problem is that the county often has difficulty finding a source of gravel for many of the roads that are spread out in more remote areas. Hanson said the department is charged with maintaining roads that run as far as 30 miles north of Inverness. Traveling to those areas can take as much as two-hours one-way, and it is not cost effective to get gravel to some of those locations.

Hanson said the department used about four times as much sand as they had last winter.

This spring, now, any roads in Hill County have become inundated by flood waters from melting snow. Relief from the rising waters, though, is a different type of challenge.

"There was a lot of snow and it took us a lot of time to get through it, but when we plow somebody out, you can see them happy and ready to go to town and get more supplies," he said.

Relief from flooding by comparison could take weeks, he said.

Tuesday, the department was monitoring two dams south of Kremlin between Kremlin and Fresno Road.

"If those go, we'll lose a lot of road south of them," he said.

As the winter recedes, damage from the winter and spring flooding to the roads will also need to be addressed.

Some roads already have flood water damage.

Hanson said crews will try to get a first grading on many roads to maintain them, but others that have been destroyed by flooding will take longer.

This year, some things likely could have been done differently, but all roads were opened, Hanson said, and felt that happened in a timely manner.

Though he is not eager about the prospect of another winter like the one he and his crew just experienced, Hanson said if a repeat of this winter comes, he and his team will be prepared.

"I hope it don't come, but if it does, we will be ready," he said.