Plowing In Tolland: An Up-Close Look

TOLLAND, CT — Tolland residents woke up to a blanket of snow Monday morning, which meant no school and a change to the local trash collection schedule.

Casella Waste will be delaying collection services by one day and operating on a holiday schedule. That means:

• Monday pickups moved to Tuesday
• Tuesday pickups moved to Wednesday
• Wednesday pickups moved to Thursday
• Thursday pickups moved to Friday
• Friday pickups moved to Saturday

And with a snowstorm comes the plowing operations. Tolland town manager Brian Foley also offered a look at how it all goes down.

The town of Tolland has 12 snowplow routes covering our 133 miles of roads. Each route averages around 11+ miles.

During an average or light snowfall, each route takes roughly three hours to complete a center-lane clearing pass.

A complete clearing of roads on a single route can take as long as eight hours.

The deeper and heavier the snow, the longer it all this can take.

"Most importantly, if it takes three or more hours to cover an entire route, then during a heavy snowfall with accumulation of 1-plus inch per hour, we will begin to see greater accumulation and deteriorating conditions," he said. "This will always occur during significant storms. Visibility can also impede operations. In addition, we must allow drivers time to rest and refuel. Please be patient.

At certain times during weather events, DPW snowplows will have their plows raised.

"This is done in consideration of many factors, including upcoming weather conditions, air and road temperatures, and current road conditions," Foley said. "Based on these factors, scraping the roads may at times worsen conditions, so the plows are raised. There are also times when salt has recently been applied and the plows are raised to avoid pushing it off the road and to give the salt time to work. Please be patient."

He added, "We are anticipating heavier, wet snow on our roads. Please take precautions to protect and secure your mailboxes. The town only covers mailbox damage if the truck itself strikes the mailbox. All of our trucks have GPS tracking capabilities for analysis."