BILLINGS — The aftermath of recent winter storms has left Billings streets covered in snow, creating a challenging situation for the city’s Streets Division.
With parking lots and roadways piled high with snow, officials are preparing for a potential melt in the coming days due to the sudden rise in temperatures expected on Thursday.
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Billings Streets Superintendent Derrick Miller said that it's kept his department busy, with snow falling non-stop from Sunday until Tuesday afternoon.
"Just back-to-back-to-back storms," Miller said Wednesday morning. "We just keep rolling.”
Miller said that the city's main focus when these storms hit is on the busier roads and streets.
"Our priority is to get the snow off of the main arterial and collectors as soon as possible," Miller said.
Miller said his department follows a strict process. Plowing is step one, with the city handling the larger streets and privately contracting the residential parts. Step two is when trucks drive around dropping salt and sand.
The toughest place to drop salt and sand are the hilly roads off Rimrock Road just below the Rims. That's exactly where you could find 18-year employee Randy Jellison Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re just sanding the hills today,” said Jellison. "A lot of people don't like doing this part of the city because of the sharp edges and turns but I don't mind it."
While Jellison was undaunted by the tricky landscape beneath the rims, he did admit these last few days have been the busiest he's had in recent memory.
"It is one of the bigger storms that we've had for awhile," Jellison said. “Everybody worked all weekend, and everyone was on 12-hour shifts."
Jellison expressed confidence in the team’s capabilities.
“We’re used to it," Jellison said. "We’ve got a good bunch of guys that work here, and everyone knows what to do."
And while those initial efforts to remove the fresh snow are important, the work doesn't stop when the snow does. Miller explained that a critical and labor-intensive task involves eliminating the snow berms created by plows, especially with warmer weather approaching.
“Right now, our focus is just to get the snow off the street," Miller said. "Obviously, when the snow melts, the water’s gotta go somewhere.”
Miller stressed the urgency of completing this work, noting that the city will also begin clearing street gutters in the next few days to help allow for the drainage of water.
“We’re going to have enough mess with the snow that’s on the ground, that we don’t need to contribute to it with a big hard ice pile,” Miller said.
The snow that is picked up from the berms on city roads is currently being stored in a lot near the Billings airport. Miller showed three large piles, each representing the work done from the past few storms — something Miller and others are grateful for.
“The guys all put their lives on hold," Miller said. "They give it everything they’ve got, and then they go home and do it again and again until we get the job done."
