Fargo Public Works Attempting to Restore Roads to Normalcy

The first snow of the season led to significant ice accumulation throughout the metro.

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – The snow came in with a vengeance on November 25 – dumping 3.1 inches on a Fargo that hadn’t seen any significant accumulation the entire Fall.

That, combined with the other weather conditions, made it difficult for city plowers to get to work.

“We have to wait for the wind to shut down. Because as long as we’ve got snow blowing in the air, it’s going to track to our pavements and really freeze. We can’t get really aggressive with our chemicals and start melting that ice off the streets because it just makes it worse and starts building compaction layer on top of compaction layer,” explained Fargo Public Works director Ben Dow.

Some debate had arisen about pre-treating the roads with chemicals. Minnesota did, North Dakota didn’t – and Dow says that was a carefully measured decision.

“We didn’t do any treatments on the road because we were looking at maybe some rain coming down first. When you put it down on the road, and then you see rain on top of it, it simply dilutes out and runs down the drain,” he said.

Some areas of the city were hit particularly hard, but the plows are now out in force and have made significant progress.

“We’ve been through the entire town, plowed the entire town,” said Dow.

This will come as a welcome relief to drivers, who saw the typical huge spike in auto accidents in the icy conditions, as well as residents who are now getting to see their freshly named snowplows out in action.

The city would also like to remind drivers behind those plows to give them an ample amount of space in the event of abrupt stops or turns.