The city had sold off most all of its snow removal trucks.
I followed this when I was working in MA back then.
Detroit was shut down the better part of 5 weeks. Even USPS delivery was suspended.
What?
No mention of jet engine snow removal?
They didn’t mention Toronto’s Metro Melter, which saved the day during the clean up of the Blizzard of ‘77.
The Patriots Dolphins “Snowplow Game” in 1983.
Don’t miss the link to the Great Snow of 1717!
Electric snowplows will be the best.....
bump
Winter Road Maintenance, the Old-Fashioned Way
Traffic jams and bad weather in the news lately got me thinking about traffic problems in the old days. Back then, too much competition for road space wasn't the issue...rather, it was hard enough to find a passable road, period. In winter, especially, roads tended to disappear, buried under the tons of snow that used to fall here in the Northeast way back before Global Warming.
But the old-timers, used to finding wooden solutions for almost every problem, found one for snow-covered roads.
"January was usually the season for winter road-work in the northern states when the snow was packed and graded to make the sledding season as long as possible. Snow was shoveled into melted or otherwise bare spots by snow-wardens, fed into covered bridges, and packed down with giant snow rollers by the road commissioner to keep the sleds going. Snow rollers are among the rarest of antique vehicles - perhaps no more than eight exist in America. Snow roads of a century ago were nursed along during the wintertime, just as modern ski-runs are, and when March winds melted the snow of the northern countryside, most of the old-time roads were still snow-packed."
- Eric Sloane, The Seasons of America Past What? Snow rollers? Can you imagine what those must have looked like?
Fortunately, Mr. Sloane provided us with one of his famous drawings to help us imagine. And naturally, wood played a part...
http://gowood.blogspot.com/2014/01/winter-road-maintenance-old-fashioned.html