ROANOKE, VA – “Right now, we’ll probably go over everything once, maybe twice, then just go from there,” Roanoke public works supervisor Anthony Caudel said.
Caudel has barely had a moment to catch his breath with back-to-back weekends of snow and ice.
“We pre-treat, we just cover the roads,” Caudel said.
Caudel is a driver for Roanoke City’s public works department.
10 News tagged along as he pretreated his downtown route.
“We also focus on all of our trouble spots. Just like, hills,” Caudel said.
Workers like Caudel make it possible for drivers to stay safe—something that isn’t lost on transportation division manager Dwayne D’Ardenne.
“We are the first responders. No one else can do their jobs before we do our jobs,” D’Ardenne said.
But back-to-back storms bring challenges for the team.
“We’ve got some fatigue from our operators. But also from a removal standpoint, we have to think about and look at where the snow is, where it’s been piled. That gives us less space to pile snow on this next event,” D’Ardenne said.
That’s why they’re asking those of you in Roanoke to be patient and help them out where you can.
“If you have a driveway, park in the driveway. If you don’t have a driveway, park on one side of the street instead of both sides of the street,” D’Ardenne said.
D’Ardenne says without this help, it can cause delays and issues with snowplows trying to make their way through.
“That really is an issue where you have vehicles parked on both sides of the street. We’re trying to squeeze a snowplow, which is a big vehicle with a big plow on the front. It’s easy to slide one way or another,” D’Ardenne said.
The goal is to get the roads back to normal as soon as possible.
“Once we get our job done, everybody can get back to normal life, and that’s what we’re here for,” D’Ardenne said.
