Snow team keeps winter roads safe for drivers

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jack Sanders
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  The winter season in Alaska is known to be rough when it comes to road conditions and driving.  Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is no exception to this; however, it does have a strong advantage most other locations don't. JBER has a dedicated team which works year-round to keep roadways safe for drivers; a team which also works to keep the airfield up and running at national standards.

The 673d Civil Engineer Group is the team keeping the streets and airfield safe and open.

In order to do this, members of the 773rd Civil Engineer squadron were in the midst of winter preparations a few weeks ago, before the first snow fell. Preparations include training Soldiers and Airmen to operate snow removal vehicles and running diagnostics on all equipment.

Before anything is done, all snow removal equipment is taken to D-29, a maintenance shop that is part of the 673d Logistics Readiness Squadron, where they went through their summer rebuild.

The crew at D-29 is responsible for ensuring all the maintenance work involving the snow removal equipment or any construction equipment is done.

"What they do is, check all the hoses, the nuts and bolts and they change all the fluids and filters," said Michael Sanders, 773d CES vehicle operator. "Any kind of wear item that's at their maintenance level, they'll change and check.

Also, prior to us taking it over there, we'll annotate any problems that the vehicle's having, like if the electric mirrors aren't working we'll right that up, and they'll fix anything like that. Everything goes to D-29 for a summer rebuild," he continued.

The 773d CES workers go through their snow-removal vehicles in detail, both before and after they return from D-29, with new Airmen and Soldiers to both instruct new service members and to check the machines before full use.

"Once (the vehicles) come back to us, we'll go through them completely to make sure everything got repaired that was supposed to," Mr. Sanders said. "Before it goes over there, we go though it, and when it comes back, we go through it.  (We do it) to make sure things are working properly and the way they're supposed."
 
For example, he said, there are four shoes welded on the side of the head of the snow plows that have carbide -- a type of really hard steel -- welded in there to last longer.  All those have to be replaced if needed, along with any substandard cutting edges.

Similar to the maintenance on the vehicles at D-29, the 773d CES have mission-oriented training for their Airmen and Soldiers.

"All the new (Soldiers and Airmen) are instructed how to use the equipment," Sanders said.

Sanders said winter road and airfield cleanup will be a breeze with the proper maintenance of he machinery and the appropriate training for the Soldiers and Airmen .