By Lea Kahn
I always wondered what it would be like to ride around in a vehicle that costs $150,000 or so.
When I was offered a chance to ride in such a vehicle last week, I jumped at it.
I just never envisioned that vehicle to be a dump truck.
But there I was Friday morning, staring up and I do mean “up” at the cab of a 2010 International dump truck, complements of the Lawrence Township Department of Public Works.
The big orange dump truck which, like a sports car, seats two costs about $175,000. The snowplow attached to the front is optional.
Being small of stature I am just a tick over 5 feet tall the first challenge was how to climb up into the cab. That problem was easily solved by hauling myself up onto the bottom step and then onto the next one, holding onto the grip on the inside of the cab.
I settled down onto the very firm seat, ready to ride “shotgun,” and buckled the seat belt. Now, we were ready to go.
Driver Jim Gorski put the truck in gear and we headed off for our first assignment, which was to push away several inches of newly fallen snow on Lenox Drive. How hard can it be to plow the snow away? Not too hard, once you have mastered the technique.
That technique means lowering the 12-foot-wide snowplow and clearing away the snow from the intersection of the street in this case, Lenox Drive and Princeton Pike. Mr. Gorski carefully pushed the snow to the curb on the south side of Lenox Drive and then pushed the snow to the curb on the north side of Lenox Drive.
The next step was to make a pass down the middle of Lenox Drive with it. At the far end of the road where it basically dead-ends, Mr. Gorski turned the truck around. He adjusted the angle of the snowplow by means of a toggle switch on the center console, and made a pass on the north side of the street.
When he reached the end of Lenox Drive at Princeton Pike, he carefully turned the snowplow truck around, skirting the island divider at the intersection. Although it’s pretty hard to miss a big orange dump truck with a snowplow attached to the front, many drivers do not pay attention to it. One impatient driver on Princeton Pike drove around the dump truck.
”The traffic is the hardest part (of the job),” Mr. Gorski said. “A lot of the guys like to plow at night. It’s nice. You’re on the road all by yourself.”
Back to business, Mr. Gorski made another pass on the south side of the street and pushed the snow off to the side. He made several passes on both sides of the street until the roadway was cleared of snow, curb to curb.
It takes about 12 passes of the snowplow truck to clear Lenox Drive because the street is so wide. On the last pass, the snowplow created a wave of snow. After that last pass, Mr. Gorski lifted the snowplow blade and drove down Lenox Drive again, scattering road salt across both lanes.
Having cleared Lenox Drive of snow, we headed north on Princeton Pike to free up the streets in a couple of subdivisions off Province Line Road. Some of the residents on Tomlyn Drive and Buckingham Drive could not wait for the snowplow truck to arrive, and left their own trail of tire tracks in the snow.
Mr. Gorski repeated the same technique clear the intersections of snow, then make a pass down the center of the street. A couple of passes on each side of the street to clear it from curb to curb. Turn the truck around again, adjust the width of the path of the salt dispenser and the amount that it sends out at one time, and the job is done.
The cul-de-sacs off Buckingham Drive required a little more finesse and took a little more time. Mr. Gorski had to adjust the angle of the snowplow blade to accommodate the radius of the cul-de-sacs, all the while watching out for a parked car on one of the cul-de-sacs.
”All of the old dump trucks had a fixed plow that was on an angle, facing the curb,” Mr. Gorski said. “You had to (maneuver) the truck. Now, we’ve got angle blades that you can make face (any direction) that you need it. With the angle blade, you can put it anywhere you want it, which makes it really nice.”
Plowing the streets in a subdivision presents a different set of challenges from plowing the main roads, Mr. Gorski said. The driver has to watch out for garbage cans, mailboxes and signposts, as well as low-hanging tree branches. That last pass requires “extra caution,” he said, because of the curbs and mailboxes.
Plowing a street with curbs, such as Lenox Drive or Buckingham Drive, is easier than clearing the roads that do not have curbs, Mr. Gorski said. If there are no curbs, the snowplow driver has to judge just how close he is to the edge of the road.
”All it takes is to get a little bit too close to the edge, and you’re in a ditch,” he said.
After a few hours, the snowplow driver returns to the streets that he has plowed to check on them. If the road salt has created slushy conditions, the driver pushes the slush off to the side of the road, he said.
Reflecting on the many snowstorms that he has experienced during his years as a Department of Public Works snowplow driver, Mr. Gorski said the bigger snowstorms are more challenging. Deeper snow means there is less traction for the snowplow truck, which is rear-wheel drive.
”I would rather have 10 smaller snowstorms than one big one,” he said. “And if you can plow during traffic if you can survive that you’ll be fine. You’ve got it made.”
