Plow Town

About Plow Town

Fairbanks's downtown grid is small enough that a plow crew can cover the whole thing in a single morning — Cushman Street, the side streets running down toward the Chena, the little lots behind the old storefronts. Plow Town treats the town that way, working block by block rather than jumping between scattered addresses, so the crew always knows which street comes next before the last one's even finished. Ice buildup at the crosswalks gets special attention, since foot traffic downtown packs snow into something slicker than the streets themselves ever get. Storefront aprons and loading areas get done early, before deliveries start arriving, with the residential blocks just off the core following right behind. Watching the whole downtown go from drifted to clear in a single pass has an order to it that a scattered rural route just doesn't.