GARDEN CITY, IDAHO — ACHD has begun preparing, inventorying, and training for the snowy season at its Garden City headquarters.
- Over 45 miles of new roads have been added to snow plow routes.
- Residential roads are the third priority for ACHD behind main roadways and school bus routes.
- To contact ACHD click here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Snowy weather will be here before we know it, and the Ada County Highway District is already preparing for plow season. I'm your neighborhood reporter Alexander Huddleston speaking with ACHD about their winter plans.
For the last several months ACHD has been working to get ready for this year's snowy season.
"We have had training with our on-call supervisors and operators. They have been running through our equipment, driving their routes to make sure they are familiar with their routes. We have already been gathering our materials from our vendors. We have our salt, our sand, our magnesium chloride so that whatever mother nature throws our way we will be ready to tackle that storm," said ACHD Maintenance Manager Lloyd Carnegie.
Carnegie told me that there will be no new routes this season, but with all of the continuous development and growth over 45 miles have been added to the existing ones. But, the big question do those routes cover residential streets?
"When it comes to residential, we always want to follow our priority system. We always want to make sure that the majority of the traveling public is able to safely get where they need to go for work or home. So getting those roads cleaned up first is our priority. Then residential streets, by the time we usually can get to them the snow has mostly melted," continued Carnegie.
I went to a local gas station to speak with commuters about their experience with snowy roads. The general consensus was that they were thankful for the help these plows provided. However, I met Gwen Hernandez who thinks the response time could be better.
Hernandez explained, "I'm from snow country and it was always plowed and we could always get out. I just feel like so many of the roads don't get cleared off in time. Some of the subdivisions can get snowed in if it snows until it all melts off. When we had Snow-pocalypse, we were in there for a week. We could not get out of our subdivision. There are a lot of people who don't know how to drive in snow."
