ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Donnie Grubb was in the cab of his tandem dump truck at 8 a.m. Friday. Ahead of him, beyond the accumulating dirt and slush on his windshield, were 12 hours of monotony, adding salt to and removing snow from the roads on Montgomery County's Brush Mountain.
"This morning my wife told me somebody on TV said, 'I hope it snows 3 feet,'" Grubb recalled. "I said, 'Apparently they don't push snow for a living.'"
Like football officials and postal carriers, drivers and administrators at the transportation department take a lot of flack from the public for their efforts. In all three professions, expectations are high; credit isn't readily given.
Employees at the Virginia Department of Transportation come under particularly harsh scrutiny when winter storms strike. The past month has brought nonstop snow, ice, rain and flooding. The New River Valley branch of VDOT has been there at every turn, working overtime to make the roads safe for travelers.
According to David Clark, assistant resident engineer at VDOT's Christiansburg office, drivers from Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties worked 9,750 hours of overtime from Jan. 2 to Jan. 20. That doesn't include the 1,940 hours turned in by part-time and emergency personnel. Last Sunday was the only day off for most workers in January.
"After the first big snow, some of the drivers couldn't get home and we had to put them up in a motel," said Dan Brugh, VDOT's resident engineer. "They're not getting much rest. It wears on you."
The job can be dangerous.
On Tuesday, Cline Burton was at Mountain Lake in Giles County contending with some ice that had formed from water running across the road. Burton, a 27-year veteran, was operating a motor grader that cuts through ice. On one stretch, "there was an inch of snow on the road, and I didn't know there was ice under the snow," Burton explained.
Next thing he knew, his motor grader broke traction and slid backward. It went off the road and was slipping down a hill toward the lake. The only thing that prevented Burton and his 16-ton piece of equipment from tumbling into the lake was one tree.
"It happened so quickly. If it wasn't for that tree I guess I would have been in the middle of the lake," Burton said. "I had a bad feeling afterward. When I got out and saw what shape I was in it really hit me.
"It makes you wonder when you go to work if you'll get to go back and see your family. I wanted to take a couple of hours off and go tie a big ribbon around that tree. It really tore me up."
Doug Gantt, Burton's supervisor in Giles County, told a story of workers on Stony Creek who had the road break out from underneath them during last month's flooding.
"They were making the road passable so Apco could get in and turn the electricity back on," Gantt said. "These guys work 12, 14, 17 hours and then have to go home and shovel their own driveways out, deal with frozen water lines, and then go back to work."
During these winter storms, VDOT hears more complaints than anything. "After 16 years, you just get used to that part of it," Grubb said. After it's over, though, Brugh said, most people are complimentary.
"You'd be amazed how many wonderful responses we get, but those are notes and letters," said Laura Bullock, VDOT's community affairs coordinator. "It's the phone calls that are so mean. I think they find more anonymity over the phone."
The most unsettling criticism came last month from a Pulaski radio station. On a Jan. 11 morning show, one of the disc jockeys was unusually harsh on VDOT and created some controversy which "turned pretty ugly," according to Clark. Ironically, that DJ has since moved to Florida, where he won't have to worry about snow on his street for quite a long time.
"Our strategy is to keep the Interstate [81] and primary roads as clear as we can during the storm, then get to the subdivisions," Clark said. "But people see Radford city and Roanoke city, where all the roads are cleared once."
Those cities, like the towns of Pulaski, Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Narrows and Pearisburg, are responsible for their owns roads. They get money from VDOT in Richmond to help clear them.
Carl Smith, a VDOT supervisor in Montgomery County, says it's hard when his crew is criticized. The workers "can't even see their families because they're working so hard to keep the roads clear," he said. "It's very disturbing."
After 23 years of marriage, Carl's wife, Mary, is accustomed to her husband's long hours and the criticism he sometimes gets. "It's hard to get used to when you first get married," Mary Smith said. "You take it one day at a time. When he comes home, he gets a bite to eat and takes a bath and goes to bed. You just let him go and keep your mouth shut. There's a lot on his shoulders."
Lately Mary has had to impart her wisdom to her daughter-in-law, Jennifer. The Smiths' son, Dale, is in his second year with VDOT. Dale and Jennifer were married last year and are expecting their first child in March.
"It's hard because I feel like I'm missing out on a lot," Dale said of his recent workload with his wife eight months pregnant. "I won't sleep as much so we'll have more time to be together."
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gene Dalton. 1. Virginia Department of Transportationby CNBemployee Donnie Grubb plows his regular snowstorm route: U.S. 460
along Brush Mountain. 2. Donnie Grubb (above) cleans ice, snow and
chemicals from the windshields - something he must do frequently. 3.
With plow mounted in front, his truck pushes snow aside along the
Brush Mountain stretch of U.S. 460. color.