INDIANAPOLIS — Before we know it, there will be snow and ice covering Indianapolis roads this winter. To be prepared, crews with Indianapolis DPW are doing a “mock snow fight” drill on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It is a practice run to make sure the trucks are working, and drivers know how to operate them.
“It gets them familiar with the truck. How to operate the truck. How to navigate in traffic with the cars. Basically, how to be safe and what to look out for,” said Steven Quick, the president of AFSCME Local #725.
Indy DPW handles snow and ice removal throughout the city and on neighborhood streets. There are about 4,000 lane miles that crews cover – along with several greenways, trails and walking paths at Indy Parks.
This year, many of the drivers behind the wheel are new to the team.
“One of the major things we are facing with the snow season is going to be a lot of new drivers out on the roadway. We had 38 drivers go through our CDL program,” said DPW spokesperson Corey Ohlenkamp.
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Those 38 drivers are part of a new city program that is funding CDL training for union employees. It allows those employees in the department to go through training and certification for the type A or B CDL licenses while bolstering DPW’s snow season staffing.
With so many new drivers, Ohlenkamp said it is critical that they practice their routes before they become snow-covered.
“They might notice there are tight turns. There might be something on the shoulder of the roadway that I have to be careful of. Here’s how I can pivot my plow, or here’s some areas I might want to take some extra consideration in getting salt down,” he said.
At any given time, Indy DPW has nearly 80 trucks and more than 19,000 tons of salt on hand. They use a granular product that lowers the freezing point of water on roadways and sticks to streets once distributed by the plows.
As crews continue to train, they also ask the community for help by giving snowplows plenty of room on the roads.
“That’s a big blade, an 11-foot blade, a big machine on the road so one of the challenges for folks is paying attention, giving drivers the space they need to get the work done,” Quick said.
Residents can stay up to date on Indy Snow Force efforts during winter weather events online at indy.gov/snow and on X by following @IndySnowForce. The Indy Snow Force Viewer will also be used throughout the season, showing where roads along standard routes have been recently plowed or treated with salt.
When there is snow accumulation, Indy DPW crews first clear major city thoroughfares used by emergency services and the largest volume of traffic. Next, crews clear secondary streets and then residential streets.
During winter storms, Indy DPW crews can plow every city thoroughfare roughly every three hours.