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ITD districts tackle Sherwin Hill together

Sherwin Hill, a 4.5-mile stretch of Idaho Highway 3 a few miles north of Bovill, serves as the divider between District 1 and District 2, but it doesn’t keep the districts from working together.

Last week, crews on both sides of the border took advantage of the lull in the recent bout of winter weather to whittle down snow berms in preparation for the next storm.

Watch a video of the teamwork.

Several storms had packed the shoulders of ID-3 with ice, creating hazardous barriers that couldn’t be easily moved by just any piece of machinery.

To create room for more snow, a D2 Bovill crewmember—at foreman Nick Rales’ suggestion—contacted the D1 Santa maintenance crew under foreman Ross Farrell to coordinate efforts on Sherwin Hill.

“We were getting an overabundance of snow up there, and we didn’t have any more room on the shoulders to store it,” Rales said. “In the past, they have used their equipment on our side of the hill, and this time they really got us out of a jam.”

Santa TT Gareth Abell brought a rotary and his teammate Doug Cardwell followed behind with a grader to clear the shoulders. Bovill TT Larry Ailor followed both of them with a snow plow to ensure the newly exposed surface would be safe for traveling.

“We always try to help out near our borders, and they do the same,” Farrell said. “This really shows the commitment of our crews to work as a team to make sure the roadways are safe as possible for the public and ready for the next storm.”