Jackson Township Highway Division

Below are a number of factors that impact the Highway Department’s winter operations and response to the winter snow and ice season.

Meeting the expectations of the citizens makes this the toughest job we do.  The drivers try their best to do a good job on the 17 snow routes in the Township.

Service can be affected by a missing driver or a truck out for repair.  In an effort to maintain service readiness seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, a mechanic is called in to support fleet readiness.  While equipment for snow and ice removal is routinely maintained and prepared well in advance of the snow and ice season, it is not uncommon for trucks, salt equipment and plows themselves to experience failure during use.

Cul-de-sacs are nice to live on but difficult to service.  Cul-de-sacs by their very design have a bigger footprint then a normal straightaway road.  There is little room to put the extra snow.  Residents living in cul-de-sacs should expect the piling of snow in all right-of-way space available.  Often the final clearing of snow from a cul-de-sac requires a smaller plow truck to return after the main snow event.

We plow main routes continuously; allotments have second priority, and cleaning cul-de-sacs is last.  All routes are run in the same direction each time by the same driver so that the driver knows the obstacles and routing places to dump snow.  Residents should expect to find snow plowed from the road to be placed on the side of the street and into culvert ditches (right-of–way spaces).  Both residential and commercial driveways meet the public road.  It is in this right-of-way space one, on occasion, will encounter plowed piles of snow from the road.  It is permissible for the Township to place plowed snow in these right-of-way spaces.  It is a violation of Ohio law for a person to remove snow from the end of a driveway or from around a mailbox and throw it back into the road that was plowed.

We continuously monitor the snow and ice conditions.  For general slippery conditions, we have six routes mapped out to treat the main roads.   For a full snow or ice condition event, all twenty-two trucks are place into services.

Our trucks initially make a pass up one traveled lane and back down the other.  After the entire route has had these initial passes, the drivers go back to widen, clean intersections and clean cul-de-sacs on their route.  Depending on when and how long the snow and ice event lasts will dictate how soon our crews can get into a “clean-up” response to the event.  Likewise, drivers must be provided some time to sleep to ensure safe operation of these large trucks and plows.

The amount of road salt used in a season is not related to the number of inches of snow.   It is really based upon of the number of slippery road conditions.  A light slippery glaze will take as much salt as a four-inch snowfall to provide safe traffic movement.

Snow and slippery conditions do not work by a clock.  If snow starts at 1:00 a.m., we will have time to send crews out and have the roads in shape for the 7:00  a.m. business and school traffic.  If it first gets bad at 6:00 a.m., we will not be able to have the roads ready at 7:00 a.m.  Nature does not always cooperate with morning rush-hour traffic.

Snow plowing on residential streets with cul-de-sacs, mailboxes, and sod berms is much more difficult and requires more driver skill than county work.  County and State plows run primarily straight on their routes with few intersections to clean and no cul-de-sacs to plow.

Mailboxes pose another challenge.  We sometimes hear from homeowners that we leave snow in front of mailboxes and that the post office may not deliver their mail. or we hear that we hit the mailbox.   Mailboxes often are located in the right-of-way, which is the same place snow is plowed to by our crews.  The drivers do their best to keep snow pushed back, but the amount of snow may pile up over the winter months before a significant thaw occurs.  Our drivers make every effort not to damage mailboxes, but often times the weight of the snow causes damage.

Avoiding traffic hazards and driving safely during snow removal service is the responsibility of the drivers. Cleaning of intersections requires skilled backing and maneuvering. Township trucks must back in and around main road intersections to clean allotment entrances.  Please keep a considerable safe distance from the trucks should you encounter a truck backing and maneuvering to get an intersection opened.

During some winters we experience extreme changes in temperature resulting in the roads going through numerous freeze and thaw cycles.  Damages to road edges are minimized if the ground is frozen prior to the snow.  When the ground is soft, the slightest snow blade intrusion or truck wheel transgression may cause a muddy situation.

Please familiarize yourself with the Township’s Snow Parking Ban.