Sören paves the way for Spring
During the beginning of 2018, many snow records were made in the northern parts of Sweden and in many places the snow plough edges were 1.5 – 2 meters high. This meant both lots of snow ploughing and also implied a significant need for snow-ditching all the roads for the spring snowmelt.
Jämtland was no exception and between the towns of Rossön and Grundsjö we met Sören Gustafsson when he was snow-ditching Route 993 with a Volvo G930 grader owned by the Engqvist Åkeri & Son.
“The snow-ditching technique is a must for the road to thaw as quickly as possible and to avoid melting water flowing onto the roadway”, Sören tells us. The Volvo is equipped with a Mählers SVH-4 wing and Sören is pleased with how it works.
“The SVH-4 is very stable with functions that enable it to be angled in so many working positions makes it incredibly flexible. It is as easy to keep it level a decimeter or so above the road to cut down the plough edge, such as skewing it downwards and below the road level to snow-ditch”, says Sören. Sören is one of the more experienced grader operators with many years’ experience behind the levers, so there’s no doubt he knows what he’s talking about.
“The road grader runs almost exclusively on snow removal in the winter months. During the summer it is mainly the gravel roads and tracks and their adjustment that takes time”, says Sören, before heading off to continue snow ditching in the direction of Rossön. Once there, Sören turns and in the rearview mirror I see how he manoeuvred the wing deep down below the road level, throwing the snow far beyond the roadway.
