Snowstorm keeps road crews busy

BANGOR – While most Mainers stocked up on necessities and battened down the hatches in anticipation of Monday’s storm, the work was just beginning for state and local snowplow crews. Even after the roads were cleared and traffic began to pick up again, road maintenance workers looked forward to days of cleanup.

The storm that began Monday and wound down early Tuesday dumped at least a foot of snow in most Maine cities and towns. Snowfall totals ranged from 12 inches in Caribou to 19 inches in Bridgton, according to the National Weather Service. The sheer amount of snow kept many stuck in their driveways and resulted in an unscheduled day off for many Maine schoolchildren and late openings for a number of area businesses.

As supervisor for state Department of Transportation Region 3, Bill Gormely is responsible for ensuring that Interstate 95 and other primary state highways in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties remain passable.

“I have a motto that if we don’t go, nobody goes,” Gormely said Tuesday. His crews, he said, were responsible for keeping highways clear not only for travelers but for firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles. Often it is work that cannot be put off or scheduled into regular shifts.

As was the case for municipal road maintenance crews across the state, it was all hands on deck in Region 3.

“We don’t have any extras,” Gormely said of the region’s staffing level. The DOT workers in this area began contending with the rapidly accumulating snow Monday afternoon and evening, after already putting in an eight-hour day.

A visit to Region 3’s headquarters on the Hogan Road in Bangor at midafternoon Tuesday revealed the same workers remained on the job. Several said they were entering their 31st hour without much more than the occasional rest or meal break.

Though they often work for extended periods, drivers who feel the need are allowed under their contract with the state to take a break of seven or eight hours after they’ve worked 15 hours.

Most choose not to, Gormely said. The exceptions, he said, come with storms that continue for several days, in which caseworkers take turns taking rest breaks.

Gormely said as much attention as possible is paid to the drivers’ safety.

As far as storms go, Gormely said he’s seen worse. “This was a nice, cold snow. It didn’t have a lot of rain or ice mixed in with it,” he said.

Holden public safety director James Ellis praised that town’s four-member road crew for keeping up with the onslaught.

“We have a top-notch crew,” Ellis said. “They’ve been out for I don’t know how long. They’re still out there. They’ve been out throughout this storm.”

Despite the potential for serious traffic accidents during the storm, Ellis said there were none to report, at least in part because most residents heeded warnings to avoid unnecessary travel and stayed off the roads, making the going a bit easier for plow crews.

Brewer City Councilor Michael Celli spent the worst of the storm riding shotgun with one of the city’s dozen public works employees. Celli, who spent six hours in the plow truck, said he still was seeing dancing white dots and the flashing of the plow’s strobes in his eyes 12 hours later.

Celli, a recent addition to the council, said the ride-along with public works staff was among several he planned to familiarize himself better with the inner workings of various city departments. “After all, you can’t write the rules if you don’t know how the game is played,” he said Tuesday.

After seeing what they do with his own eyes, Celli said he’s gained a new level of respect for the work plow truck drivers do, often in the worst weather conditions.

“Those guys are phenomenal,” he said, citing their expertise.

Some of the things that surprised Celli during the ride-along were the amount of traffic on city streets late Monday night – despite all the warnings urging motorists to stay put unless they had to venture out – and the number of people out shoveling their driveways while the storm was in full swing.

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