Recently, Scott Tourville was laying salt on Columbus streets in the city's northeast side.
During his drive, he faced numerous challenges, including people walking on the streets, cars driving too recklessly or too close to Tourville's truck and the conditions of the road themselves. Each bump and turn slowly abused Tourville's truck.
Tourville is an administrator with the Columbus Dept. of Public Service.
On another part of the journey, Tourville faced a construction crew slowly moving towards the road, while trash bins that were practically in the road lined the other side. In one instance, a car was driving so close behind the back of Tourville's truck, he could barely see it out of his rearview mirror.
For Tourville and other plow drivers around the Columbus area, this is just another day at work.
Columbus has already faced many rounds of snow this season, which led to snowplow crews answering the call to clear the streets.
Tourville said the harsh weather conditions pose a major challenge to the visibility for drivers.
鈥淵ou're driving an oversized vehicle. Our biggest trucks are going to be 12 to 14 tons fully loaded. It's likely snowing. Roads are slick. You're working around traffic. If the wind is blowing and blowing snow in your face, your visibility is impacted,鈥� Tourville said.
He said because of the size of the trucks, it can be difficult to clear smaller side streets, which usually have a multitude of objects on the sides of the road, including cars and trash bins.
鈥淲e will have to send a small truck to one specific street, because of all the cars from time to time,鈥� Tourville said. 鈥淪o that can definitely create a challenge when you can't finish your route because you can't fit. And then we've got to stop what we're doing or divert a resource from somewhere else and send it just because of parked cars.鈥�
Even with using smaller trucks, Tourville said it's inevitable that cars will get snow pushed onto them if parked on the side of the road.
鈥淎 snowplow is designed to move snow off the road efficiently and that includes moving snow. You know, there's really no way to keep the snow from being shoved from the middle to the outside,鈥� Tourville said. 鈥淪o, whether that's in front of someone's driveway or up against a car parked on the side of the street, they're going to get snow pushed in front of the driveway or in front of a car. There's just really no way around it.鈥�
Tourville said in addition to cars on the side of the road, foot traffic is also an unavoidable issue which can be stressful for drivers.
鈥淚t's very stressful. You know, the last thing you want to do is hit somebody, any vehicle, any kind of vehicle or whenever you're driving and now you've got a big giant bulldozer blade for lack of a better term,鈥� Tourville said.
People have mixed reactions to the trucks, Tourville said, ranging from excitement at seeing the trucks to the belief that the plows aren鈥檛 actually treating the roads. In reality, Tourville said cleaning the streets properly is a fairly long process.
鈥淲hen it snows, that snow will melt just a little bit and then it's kind of like ice right on the pavement and it really sticks to the pavement. These plows are not designed, and they don't scrape to bear pavement, they push the loose stuff off the top,鈥� Tourville said. 鈥淭hat's why the pretreating is important and that's why it's also common for folks to think that we haven't been on their street when it's not perfectly clear, when we've pushed all the loose stuff off the top and now you need to give that material time to work if it's a street that we salt."
Tourville said another challenge is the wear and tear on the trucks and the drivers themselves.
鈥淵ou've got this giant plow right in front that you're pushing along. The pavement isn't exactly perfectly smooth. You're hitting manhole covers and things like that. And it's a physically-challenging 12-hour shift,鈥� Tourville said.
Overall, Tourville said the 12-hour shifts can be the hardest part of the job, especially when some of the staff come in from other jobs.
鈥淭he men and women doing this job are working their tails off in 12-hour shifts,鈥� Tourville said. 鈥淭he auxiliary staff, you know, they're doing their regular day job as a building inspector or code enforcement guys person. They're working at Rec and Parks in an office job, and then they're finishing that job up and jumping in the truck.鈥�
For more information on which streets have been treated, visit .