PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) set up their snow plow obstacle course Thursday in preparation for the winter weather conditions on Portland roadways.
"Our maintenance operation crews are the city's first responders for winter weather,” said Dylan Rivera, spokesperson for PBOT.
Rivera said his crew is ready for the winter conditions on the Portland roadways.
"We have about 55 snow plows. In addition to that we have about half a dozen salt spreaders as well,” said Rivera.
Every October, PBOT holds this training course as a safe place to practice driving a snow plow and to refresh their skills.
“It gets us in the mindset that the snow could be coming," said Zach Kreis who is a utility worker with PBOT.
Kreis has been with PBOT for the last five years and is thankful for the training, but has this advice for the rest of us on the roads.
“The best thing the public could do is just keep its distance,” said Kreis. “If they're in some sort of hurry, plow trucks pull over a lot. Just wait for one to pull over. Go around the side of it. But, it's always safer a couple hundred feet behind one because the road is clean there.
Each plow driver has their own designated route they're in charge of throughout Portland— from Northwest Skyline to East Portland near 122nd. It’s kind of like a bus route.
So, in preparation for those winter conditions they spend time driving those assigned routes without the plow attachment on the truck, then they can make notes and observations on what they go up against before conditions worsen.
"We have to really divide that up among all our drivers and all those routes are all different," said Rivera.
Rivera adds they have a full crew for the winter months, but they are always looking for extra workers.