In the winter months, it might be Hermantown’s most-regularly-asked question.
“When is my road going to be plowed?”
Sometimes the question comes with kindness, sometimes it comes with … well, let’s just say, less kindness.
But Paul Senst, Hermantown’s Public Works Director, has heard every version of the question.
“It makes perfect sense to ask that question, and if I hadn’t spent hours and hours driving plows, planning routes, and dealing with the actual snow, I’d want to know exactly when my road was going to be plowed too.”
All that experience has taught Senst that you do have to have a plan and a route, but you also have to plow the snow you are given.
“The snow density, the moisture content, whether it is 18 inches in one part of Hermantown and 13 inches in another part all factor into what it takes to make the roads passable,” Senst said. “A huge part is whether we are dealing with fluffy stuff or wet, heavy snow.”
This winter plowing season started with the wet, heavy snow … and 22 inches of it. But for Senst and his public works team, they put together an A+ performance.
“We had all of Hermantown cleared in 21 plowing hours, where other communities were stuck for days and days,” Senst said. “But part of that success was that we pushed hard and residents didn’t get too antsy and try and get out on the roads before they were clear.”
Forgotten in the plowing equation is that residents, those actually being plowed out, are, in many ways, the most important part of the success of the plowing efforts. Senst refers to it as a bit of a partnership, noting that if residents can stay put in their homes and off the roads, then it is much easier to get the roads back to clear and passable. Cars parked or stuck in the roadway slows down plowing efforts, making navigation all the trickier – especially with plows operating deep into the night and in falling snow conditions.
“Snowmobiles are actually the worst,” Senst said. “When you choose to drive your snowmobile down the roadway it changes the snow we are plowing, it makes it denser and compacted. Hitting those patches of snow that are different slow everything down.”
The plan itself, when our community experiences a “major event” like the heavy 22-inches of snow we received earlier this snow season, is to clear Hermantown’s main arteries first – which includes Loberg Road, Stebner Road, Arrowhead Road, Hermantown Road, and Ugstad Road. All while St. Louis County is plowing the roads that are their responsibility – such as Midway Road, Maple Grove Road, Morris Thomas Road, Lavaque Road, Haines Road, Lavaque By-Pass, St. Louis River Road, select parts of Stebner Road (south of Morris Thomas Road and north of Hwy 53), and a few other roads near Duluth International Airport.
“A lot of people don’t know which roads are our responsibility and which belong to the county, which makes sense because all the roads are in Hermantown,” Senst said. “But there are roads that belong to our team and roads that belong to the County’s team.”
After the main roads are open, Senst’s secondary focus is on “roads with two ends.”
“You want to open roads that allow drivers to access other open roadways, rather than focusing on dead ends or areas with only one way out,” Senst said.
This means roads such as Getchell Road south of Maple Grove Road, Reinke Road, the combination of Sugar Maple Drive and Silver Leaf Street between U.S. 53 and Lavaque Road, and Lindahl Road between Arrowhead Road and Hermantown Road. Then it is on to the dead-ended streets.
“It also helps to think of us like U.P.S. drivers because we always want to be making right turns,” Senst jokes. “Turning the plow the other direction is less safe, takes more time, and doesn’t allow us to push the snow into the corner as we turn.”
During the 22-inch storm Hermantown received earlier this snow season, Senst had a pair of his team start at 2 a.m. and another duo begin an hour later. By 4 a.m., eight total public works team members were on the road using two motor graders, three plow trucks and one loader with a plow.
“That snow was so heavy and so wet, we realized to move it we needed to have a motor grader working in tandem and leading a plow truck to get the roads clear,” Senst said.
By 8 p.m. the first day, Senst and his crews wrapped up their 16- and 18-hour shifts. Starting at 4 a.m. the next day, they had all of Hermantown’s roads open and passable by 6:30 a.m.
“We pushed hard because we know people need to get out of their houses, get to work, head to the store, and we want to get the roads clear and safe as soon as we can,” Senst said. “But it does take time and each snowfall presents its own challenge.”
This is something we all learn growing up in a place with a prominent winter. The type of snow that makes the best snowman, isn’t exactly the easiest to move with a shovel.
“If there was such a thing as a normal snow event – say something less than six inches, not too wet, and equal across the city – we’ll have everything open in right about six hours,” Senst said. “But I think people who live here know there isn’t really a normal snow event in this part of the country.”
But they also know there are hard-working community members behind the wheel of those snow plows. So when it comes time to ask that regular question about when your road will be open, be sure to plow your maximum kindness into the question.