State Street climbs from the Hudson up to the Capitol, and every January that grade makes the case for careful snow work. American Design & Contracting plows and clears across Albany's steep downtown blocks, where wind off the river stiffens whatever fell in the night. The shift starts in the dark: push the lot, shovel the walk down to bare pavement, lay salt where the pitch would otherwise turn one step into a slide. By the time the buses grind uphill, the driveways and entrances are simply open, and nobody has to think about them. That is the whole ambition, storm after storm.