While most Virginia Tech students eagerly await cancellations and delays because of the snow, other businesses in Blacksburg are either preventing those disruptions from happening or notifying the community about them.
When snow starts falling, the trucks begin plowing, the buses scope out the road conditions and the Blacksburg and Tech alert systems are on standby.
Bill Woolwine, assistant director of field operations for the town of Blacksburg, takes care of sidewalk and street maintenance as well as all snow removal. If it snows at night when Woolwine isn’t in his office, the police department will notify him.
To prepare for a snowstorm, he sets up his drivers who work for 12-hour shifts starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m. for the dayshift, and reverse for the nightshift. He also puts chains on the trucks and snowplows on the pickup trucks so that he can begin taking care of the roads.
Woolwine applies chemicals such as chloride combined with salt to the road to thaw the snow.
“I start applying chemicals as soon as the snow starts to stick to the roads,” Woolwine said. “I start pushing the snow off the roads when the drifts are approximately two inches.”
One of Woolwine’s other duties is plowing apartment complexes on Prices Fork Road and Toms Creek Road.
After a snow, Woolwine explains that they wash their equipment, do maintenance on their trucks like repairing broken chains and replacing the rubber on the front of the snowplows in order to get ready for the next storm.
While Woolwine maintains the roads, Ken Tucker, marketing manager for the Blacksburg Transit, handles external communications in various situations. One such situation is bad weather. For example, if there is a snowstorm that begins during the night, the marketing department receives a call letting it know if the BT is ready to run or not. From there, Tucker and the marketing department communicate this message to the public via their Web site, phone system, TV and radio.
To gauge if there is going to be an upcoming snowstorm, the marketing department monitors weather reports. In addition, the operations department checks weather sources and reports on a daily basis. It also participates in emergency management, preparedness, reporting and meetings, all of which happen before a store.
There are many different departments within the BT that help decide how to handle a snowstorm, with the first being the operations department.
“They’re the people who determine who’s operating the buses, what schedules they run on and (if they) are they running safely,” Tucker said. “If there are problems, operations take care of that.”
If it snowed during the night, operation supervisors typically start driving around the BT system at 3 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., before the buses begin running. The operations supervisors report back via phone to the operations manager to discuss the road conditions.
“The operations manager,” Tucker said, “at the same time while taking all their reports, is also consulting the local law enforcement, the university, town officials, our safety and training department, and public works.
“From there, they make a decision on whether or not it is safe to operate, or if we have to delay service or change routes.”
The BT also has a safety and training department that prepares operators before a snowstorm. Drivers go through an extensive training program where they learn how to operate a vehicle. They then go through training and refresher courses, as well monthly meetings on safety and training.
The department now uses a simulator that emulates different driving conditions and terrain. Operators don’t need to go out driving in a vehicle to learn how to drive in dangerous circumstances. Drivers learn a certain type of driving system that stresses space, visibility and time to promote the safe operation of vehicles.
The BT maintenance department regularly carries out preventative maintenance procedures and check-ups on all of their vehicles.When it is preparing for a snowstorm, it carries out the same procedures as usual.
“All buses come in at night,” Tucker said. “They’re washed, fueled and ready to go in the morning. Our maintenance department is here early in the morning when there are snow events as well, too, or bad weather.”
On rare occasions, the BT will run on snow routes, which are a subset of the system that it runs on regular. For example, the BT would run on the same roads it normally would on Main Street during a snowstorm, but it may not run on certain parts of Main Street.
The Blacksburg Alert system helps keep the community informed about BT cancellations. Lisa Sedlak, communications specialist for the town of Blacksburg, is in charge of communications through social media.
Blacksburg Alert was launched in September 2003 and is powered by Tele-Works, Inc., a Blacksburg-based company.
“It is an e-mail alert system where people can receive alerts according to various categories, whether they want alerts on recreation activities, community events, development notifications, (or) traffic,” Sedlak said. “Just general e-news which is something we send out every Friday just summing up all of the news, or if they just want public safety or emergency notifications.
“So basically we send these emails out to the lists based on what these people have signed up for.”
The notifications of delays or closings are based on the department. Sedlak said the BT contacts the community relations department to have their services sent over the Blacksburg Alert system through e-mail. Other departments such as parks and recreation or the police department also contact the Blacksburg Alert as well.
During a snowstorm, Blacksburg utilizes its departments to address problems before they affect a majority of the town.