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Rojas’ wing dolly makes job simpler and safer

Highway division employees in eastern Idaho have submitted 73 ideas for Innovate ITD! since late 2014, with 25 of them now implemented. The innovations have saved 457 hours of work time and approximately $451,500 in costs. Tony Rojas, of the road maintenance crew in Arco, has been an innovator from the start. One of his first ideas centers on the safety of workers, which is an equally important program and departmental goal.

Rojas was worried about the manner in which he and his colleagues installed blades on snowplows.
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“We used a front-end loader to transport and hoist the heavy extension blades [wings] into position,” he said. “The process was cumbersome and risky. It required four people – one to run the loader, one to guide the loader, and two to wrestle the wing into place.

“I got the idea to build a dolly to wheel the blade into position.

“I designed the dolly to use the truck’s own hydraulics to place the wing on and off a cradle, and I mounted a stabilizing jack on the dolly to keep the wing upright.”

Today, the innovation eliminates the need for a loader and for the crewmembers needed to operate and guide it for this application. His creation improves worker safety, while saving time and manpower in the process.