TOPEKA (KSNT) – The City of Topeka is gearing up as cooler weather returns, and with that comes preparing for future snowfall.
With the weather starting to cool down, the City of Topeka’s snow crews have been out practicing as part of their annual training in advance of the winter months.
Not just anyone can operate a dump truck. People have to be certified with a commercial driver’s license, legally qualifying them to operate and drive heavy motor vehicles.
“So, we do classroom training over snowplow and ice formation and all kinds of things like that as well as then,” said David Juedes, safety and training coordinator for transportation operations. So, we just did that a few days ago, and now we’re out doing the actual hands-on practical application of them out here, doing the driving part.”
An obstacle course was set up for training purposes on Thursday, Oct. 15 along with some friendly competition. The cones simulated cars on the road and mailboxes, and the metal bars acted as snow. The goal: hit the metal, not the cones.
“This obstacle course we have here is set up to simulate different skills,” Juedes said. “So, whether they’re pushing barrels or whether they’re going through the different cones, it’s to try and simulate the different skills that they need for operating the snowplow tracks as well as not hitting certain things. So, there’s a lot of that out there, as well as the different barricades that you’ll see out here on the course. So, that way we make sure that we’re hitting the snow and nothing else.”
Officials are encouraging you to give snowplows extra room while on the road and while parking on the street. Adam Miller, a street maintenance specialist, said sometimes snowplow operators can’t even see cars behind them.
“For them to operate,” Miller said. “If you’re right up behind our trucks, a lot of times we don’t even know a car is back there, and we’re going to make sudden stops. And if you’re if it’s a narrow road, if you can try to avoid parking on the street, there’s a lot better chance that we’re going to plow the street if there are no cars on it. It’s very difficult to get some of our trucks in between two vehicles on a narrow street.”
Topeka Scarecrows ready for Friday home opener
Dan Garrett with the City of Topeka said the city has not been impacted when it comes to salt shortage supplies because Topeka is under a contract and the price has not changed.
Staff with the Kansas Department of Transportation have also added a new feature on KanDrive.gov that allows people to track the progress of snowplows on state highways. You can learn more about how to use this new tool by clicking here.
For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.
