Warm, dry weather paves the way for street department

SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Our mild start to fall has provided ideal conditions for Sioux Falls crews fixing wear and tear on city roads.

The street department is running ahead of its seasonal to-do list before the first snow flies.

A close shave to guard against future potholes in this neighborhood on the west side of Sioux Falls. This giant piece of equipment, called a milling machine, is taking a little off the top; scraping away 2-inches of asphalt from the surface.

“It crumbled up and got too old and dry and it’s starting to let loose and that’s also where you see a lot of potholes,” City of Sioux Falls Street Maintenance Supervisor Charlie Putzier said.

Crews will come back and place a fresh layer of asphalt on top. But in the meantime, it’s still safe for cars to drive on.A makeover like this becomes much easier when the weather’s been this warm and this dry.

“I don’t need rain days. I don’t want rain days. Don’t get me wrong, I like green grass and everything. But the more I can get done, from April first to November first, which is usually our season for doing repair, I’m taking every day I get a chance to,” Putzier said.

Warm days followed by cool nights provide the perfect temperature sweet-spot for this crew to get their work done.

“There’s an optimum temp of probably 50 degrees to 70 degrees. But when that asphalt starts to get a little hotter it starts to gum-up a little bit and gets stuck on the teeth, so this temperature is actually perfect,” City of Sioux Falls Street Operations Manager Dustin Hansen said.

There’s often a sense of urgency to complete street work before the weather gets too cold. But this prolonged warm and dry spell takes a lot of that pressure off, even though crews know that winter is eventually down the road. But in the meantime..

“I’ll take this every day, all day,” Putzier said.

The asphalt that’s removed from the streets will eventually get recycled.

Meanwhile, there’s already one sure sign of winter. The street department has scheduled snow-school training for all city employees involved in snow removal, beginning October 8th.