# Plowing Cul-De-Sacs



## darryl g (Jan 30, 2010)

I don't plow and cul-de-sacs myself but have several residential customers on them. I do most of my plowing in 3 towns and they all handle them differently. One plows it into a huge mound in the middle, one plows it with apparent total disregard for the driveways on it and leaves huge walls at the apron and the thrid one fans out and pushes it into piles away from the driveways. I wish they would plow them all that way. I know it's probably more time consuming due to having to back up multiple times but the result is so much better. 

So for those of you who actually plow roads, how do you handle cul-de-sacs and why? I just can't see leaving a huge pile in the middle and it seems downright inconsiderate to put a huge wall of snow in front of someone's driveway. Why can't all the municipalities just push it off to the sides?


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## Mackman (Nov 3, 2009)

I have 6 cul-de-sacs on my route. I plow them all to the sides and not to block peoples driveways. If we block peoples driveways and they call the township and ***** then we get an ear full. Cul-de-sacs suck. But its part of the job. Once you do them a couple times you get to know how to do them and where to put the snow.


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## wenzelosllc (Dec 7, 2009)

My city comes by and cleans up after they plow using a front loader and clean up their pile. I usually plow into this pile if they haven't come and cleaned it up yet or haven't plowed. I usually also plow the whole cul-de-sac to make sure I cleaned up enough.


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

IT all depends really. on the size of the culdesac. Some I push outwards and some get pushed into the middle. The middle is the easiest. Then I just make an extra pass or 2 and push a little outwards and a little inwards.


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## 2brothersyc (Oct 17, 2009)

i plowed one for so long and i just went down the road strait push then back up and push strait 4 as long as u can then winthromto the side


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## affekonig (Aug 5, 2008)

I only plow courts and have a route of 22 that I've done for about 10 years. People in the bulbs get no/just about no snow in their driveway, but people in the neck get the street windrowed into their driveway just as anybody on a road would. I pride myself on keeping driveways as snow free as possible. Yes, courts or cul de sacks do suck, but I like to think that I have them down now. Half of my courts have islands in the center of the bulb and that's where the snow goes - push the shaft into the bulb, then push the back half of the bulb to the front and push it into the pile. Courts without islands are all different, but nothing goes in the middle and nothing does in driveways.


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## darryl g (Jan 30, 2010)

I can see pushing into the middle of ones with islands but the do that here with no island.


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## geer hed (Nov 22, 2010)

A lot depends on how big the culdisac is, and also how big the truck is your plowing with. Example - I have 6 culdi-sacs on my route. NON of the culdi-sacs are big enough to turn in a circle with a pickup truck without backing up. I plow these with a single axle dump truck with an 11 foot blade, so your choices of where to go or what to do with the snow is very limited. THEN one of my coworkers does 4 on his route with a tendem axle and a 12 foot blade. So we try to push the snow inbetween driveways as much as physicaly possible and if we do happen to block one we go back with iether a smaller truck or loader to reopen them. Other than that, everyone gets equall amounts of snow. We are equall opertunity plowers.


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## bristolturf (Dec 20, 2008)

yup. Sometimes i am out with a f350 crew cab long bed with a salter and a 9'2 boss v and that sucks to do the cul-de-sacs with. Then Sometimes I have a 3500 regular cab long bed with a 8'6 straight blade on it, thats awesome in the cul-de-sacs. 

I dont see what the big deal is if you pile the snow in the middle with no island. Basically your just making an island then. push it there, and if it gets to be to much bring in a loader for an hour and stack it up. Ideally if you can use a loader in the cul-de-sacs thats what you would use, something like a skid loader with an 8' blade. But that may not be an option. Theres one company i know that plows roads that they will make 2 passes around the cul-de-sac close to the drives pushing the snow inwards then they just have a skid loader come in and finish it off.


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## b00sted (Aug 15, 2009)

I used to do a big sub-division with condo complexes that had a cul-de-sac at the end of the street. I would just drive around in circles and push it all the way out to the curb. After that I had to do the parking lot driveways on that cul-de-sac, so I'd clear the mouth of the driveway AFTER the cul-de-sac/street was done.


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## ajaynejr (Jan 22, 2011)

It should be easy to open up a cul de sac quickly, just go around once and leave. Come back later to clear the circle.

First going around the wrong way putting the snow in the center has the advantage of not blocking driveways as much. Considering that many cities have "cul de sacs" with center islands, the idea of leaving the snow in the middle is not farfetched.

After clearing the circle, the plow should not go around in the "correct" direction close to the snow piles to scrape the curbs clear. All this does is replow snow out of piles and into driveways. Instead the snow piles should have been established further outside the circle.


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## darryl g (Jan 30, 2010)

Well I guess there's more to plowing cul-de-sacs than I thought, lol.


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## SnowMatt13 (Jan 8, 2003)

In my village we have over 80 that we do.
All are open, no tear drop centers or center islands.
All my guys are instructed to push as much of the cul-de-sac straight forward as posssible. It may be a few locations but that is the easiest and fastest. Obviously driveway placement is sometimes an issue but the majority goes there. Once those locations fill up I take the loader and move the piles to other locations in the cul-de-sac without and evenly distribute in the ROW.
I will not allow my guys to "loop" or drive a circle as the plow a cul-de-sac. Too many times large windrows are left in front of drives. When we start we do a 1 in 1 out meaning 1 pass each way. When they get to a cul-de-sac they have to clean 50%. Then when they do the curb, the other 50%. If it's still snowing we just keep alternating. This way, there is always something getting cleaned and people have something to drive to when they leave their driveeway instead of charging through windrows to make it somewhere.
I set up our last new truck (F350 dump) with a V plow just for cul-de-sac clean-up.
In addition, our village now has an ordinance that gives us a snow easement straight ahead as you enter a cul-de-sac to make our job cleaning them a bit easier.


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