Page 15
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, March 7, 2007
ODOT uses unique blower, snowplow to clear Caves Hwy. after winter storms
State agency provides assistance to National Park Service; blower visitation likely first at historic district
By ROGER BRANDT
Falling clumps of snow
and branches were among
the many hazards that a
crew of four ODOT em-
ployees faced as they
worked during the past three
days to remove fallen trees
and push aside near-record
drifts of snow to open the
last eight miles of Hwy. 46
(Caves Hwy.) to Oregon
Caves National Monument.
The monument is ap-
proximately 20 miles east of
Cave Junction.
The crews used chain
saws to cut fallen trees into
sizes that could be carried
off the road, although many
had been buried by snow.
Digging them out became
an added task that made the
job twice as difficult.
It later was determined
to be safer for a backhoe to
dig out some of the trees and
move them off the road. A
bucket truck had to be
brought to cut and remove a
large madrone
tree that had
fallen across the
road. The tree
was hung on
other trees, leav-
ing it perched
high enough that
a vehicle could
be driven under
it.
A National
Park
Service
employee, who
lives approxi-
mately 2 miles
below the monu-
ment, has meas-
ured more than
70 inches of snowfall from
the storms that passed
through the area last week.
This has since settled into a
blanket of packed, wet snow
some 3 feet thick.
The density of the snow
pack has made the job of
clearing it off the road all
the more difficult.
“I have been working
with ODOT for 12 years
and have never worked in
this much snow,” said Mike
Scott, a snow plow driver.
“We had to bring a snow
blower up today to get this
pack off the road so we can
get the plows in there to
work,” he said.
The snow blower could
be heard farther up the road
from where Scott sat wait-
ing in the snow plow. As
soon as the blower had
made a couple of passes, he
began pushing aside the
excess snow left on the road
by the blower. When he
caught up with the blower,
he stopped and waited for
the blower to clear the next
section.
“This snow plow can
really push the snow,” Scott
said about the small, un-
usual looking plow he was
driving that had an even
more unusual name of
“Unimog.” It was made by
Mercedes Benz around 1975
and Scott thought that this
was the last one remaining
in Oregon.
Despite the Unimog’s
capability, he still was hav-
ing trouble removing the last
few inches of ice that was
packed on the road surface.
“This is what happens if
you don’t get
the snow off
the road right
away,” he
said. Melting
snow seeps
through the
pack
and
settles on the
roadway
where
it
freezes
to
form a sheet
of ice that
may be 2-to-
3
inches
thick.
“We usually
try to get the
snow off the road right away
so we don’t get these ice
sheets, but we are so low
staffed these days that we
just get things done when
we can get to them,” said
Scott. He added that he has
been working 12 hours a
day for nine days straight to
clear roads of snow and
fallen trees.
According to members
of the crew, the Grants Pass
section has responsibility of
taking care of about 500
“lane-miles” of road, more
than any other section in
Oregon.
“We used to have a staff
of 21 in our road crew but
we are now down to a crew
of 12 responsible for doing
the same amount of work,”
said Lorne Strum, a 17-year
ODOT employee.
The wet snow also pro-
voked problems with the
snow blower, often causing
the mechanism to plug up,
which the driver had to clear
before he could continue. A
couple of shear pins also
had to be replaced by the
ODOT mechanic from
Grants Pass, one of two in
all of Region Eight.
The crew reached the
Oregon Caves parking lot
late Friday afternoon, March
Search And Rescue academy taking class applications
The Josephine County
Sheriff’s Patrol Search And
Rescue (SAR) Unit is con-
ducting its seventh “Citizens
Academy.”
There is room for 40
students in the 40-hour
academy, scheduled for
three consecutive weekends
in April. Classes will begin
April 13, concluding on the
weekend of April 22.
The academy will be
held at the SAR facility at
250 Tech Way in the North
Valley Industrial Park. The
curriculum will provide a
thorough introduction to
search and rescue, meeting
the state’s minimum training
requirements.
The academy will cover
topics such as map and
compass, global positioning
systems (GPS), man-
tracking, wilderness sur-
vival, radio communica-
tions, search techniques,
cold-weather emergencies,
helicopter safety, crime-
scene preservation and a
variety of other subjects.
The academy is open to all
citizens and is offered at $5
per student. Students must
be at least 14, with no maxi-
mum age, and no prior ex-
perience is required.
Academy graduates
wishing to be considered for
active duty SAR member-
ship may apply at the con-
clusion of the course. The
application process includes
a background check, a mod-
erate physical fitness test
and an interview process.
For those accepted, there is
a trial service period, addi-
tional required training and
minimum attendance re-
quirements.
Active-duty SAR mem-
bers also receive training on
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The treatment of diabe-
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To the Root:
Healthy Elimination
What we eliminate from our lives is often
more important than what we add to it. What
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Unhealthy foods, thoughts, emotions and relations only
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a variety of snow craft, wa-
tercraft and several types of
specialized off-road vehi-
cles. Advanced training is
available for qualified mem-
bers wishing to participate
in rope and wilderness res-
cue, in conjunction with
American Medical Re-
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specialty sub-units of SAR;
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swift water rescue team,
dive rescue team and an
urban SAR team, trained for
structural collapse rescue.
SAR also sponsors a youth
SAR Explorers Post for
those 14 to 20.
SAR is an all-volunteer
unit, funded entirely through
community donations and
grants. For more informa-
tion or to register for the
academy, contact Josephine
County Emergency Man-
agement at 474-5300.
2. The snow blower contin-
ued clearing the small ac-
cess road to the Oregon
Caves lodge.
The blower throws
snow with enough force to
send it arcing for more than
100 feet. For that reason, the
driver turned off the blower
when he got close to the
lodge to avoid damage to
the historic building. He was
still able to clear snow by
using the blower like a snow
plow.
“This might be the first
time we have ever had a
snow blower in the historic
district,” said John Cavin,
the monument’s mainte-
nance chief. He expressed
gratitude that ODOT was
clearing the road all the way
to the lodge and visitor cen-
ter so that the Park Service’s
smaller equipment could get
in and clear the snow.
The ODOT crew re-
turned on Monday, March 5
to continue clearing.
Residents interested in
driving up to the monument
to enjoy the snow should
keep in mind that the clear-
ing of the road is currently a
work in progress. As of Fri-
day, some sections were
opened to almost the width
of two lanes while other
sections were a little more
than one lane wide.
A wall of snow about
2-to-3-feet high lines the
road, making it challenging
to pull over if you meet an
oncoming vehicle while
driving too fast. Drive slow,
be vigilant for oncoming
traffic, and be cautious due
to icy conditions.
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