Tehachapi News

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Tehachapi had more snow this winter than we’ve had in recent years, and yet the roads in town were driveable every morning. Even when local schools were closed because of safety concerns, our city streets remained passable. How was this possible? Because of the diligence and hard work of the City of Tehachapi’s Public Works Department snow removal crew.

The whole approach to snow removal and ice reduction on Tehachapi’s city streets has changed since I was a little kid growing up here. The philosophy used to be more “let the driver beware” when snowstorms blanketed the valley. Locals were expected to respond intelligently following a heavy snow — either walk and don’t drive, or use snow chains, or stick to a 4-wheel drive vehicle with snow tires.

City employees would scatter sand by the stop signs and try to keep Tehachapi Boulevard open, but not too much else. Most people had lived here long enough to simply avoid driving during and immediately after snowstorms unless it was absolutely necessary.

Now there are a lot more people in the area and many have brought with them Southern California expectations of driving: any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. The City, to its credit, has responded by adding more equipment and working longer hours to insure that most of Tehachapi’s 44 miles of city roads and streets are passable, even when it snows heavily.

“People wake up in the morning after a snowstorm and they want to be able to drive regardless,” explained Public Works Superintendent Dennis Wahlstrom. “We do our best to make that possible. The main roads, especially all the areas around our schools are our main priority, but we even try to keep the residential streets passable.”

Using both snow plows and also sanders to spread a mixture of volcanic cinders and sand on local streets, city crews attempt to melt snow and prevent ice formation as well as moving the snow toward the sidewalks and gutters.

The result is streets that are reasonably safe to navigate, but there is a downside, noted Public Works Supervisor Perrin Cowan.

“Seeing a cleared road with sand and cinders can give people a false sense of security and some drive way too fast,” Cowan said. “There can be more serious accidents when people drive too fast for the conditions, and they would be better off if they were just going slowly in the snow. Even with plowing and sanding, there can still be water and ice on the roads and drivers need to slow down. Some don’t, though.”

Since we know the roads aren’t cleared by magic or snow elves, how exactly does the city respond to a predicted snowstorm?

First a crew of six employees are placed on snow removal duty. If a nighttime storm seems certain, some employees may stay home during the day in anticipation of working all night instead. A designated monitor then checks conditions every hour throughout the day and night — if the snow begins to stick, the crew is mobilized and will work until the roads are drivable and the snow stops.

The city puts four pieces of equipment to work: a sander truck, a plow, and two vehicles that have both a sander and a plow. The sanders are rectangular hoppers with a spreader at the back end to broadcast the sand/cinders evenly on the streets to help melt snow and ice.

While the city used to have straight plow blades, newer trucks are equipped with Boss “V” plows that can be angled to form a scoop or a wedge. The newer plows also have replaceable polyurethane blades affixed to the bottom to keep from damaging city streets, especially new features like the compass rose at the Tehachapi Boulevard/Green Street intersection.

When a driver has worked long hours into the night and morning, another crew member is called out to replace them while the exhausted driver goes home to sleep for a few hours. If a storm lasts for several days, snow removal can continue around the clock for 48 hours or more. At the same time, hard-working crews from county and state road departments are also at work in the area clearing the roadways for which they are responsible.

This year the city has already used over 200 tons of the sand/cinder mix on Tehachapi streets, which may set a record.

So remember that while you might be inside enjoying the beauty of a winter storm with snowflakes beginning to fill the air, City of Tehachapi employees are pulling on their boots and heading out to work all day and night if necessary to keep our roads safer.

Thanks, guys. Your efforts are both noticed and appreciated.

Have a good week.