New Franklin Road Department

About New Franklin Road Department

New Franklin's roads run over glacial hills and around the edges of small lakes, so a storm never lands evenly across them — one stretch stays merely wet while a ridge road two miles off is drifting shut. The New Franklin Road Department plows and treats those miles through the night, working the routes in order so the hills and the bus turns open first. Snow here often rides a northwest wind that keeps refilling what was just cleared, which makes a shift less a single pass than a long circuit repeated until morning. Drivers learn where the wind loads a curve and where ice sets up in a hollow, and the salt goes down accordingly. By the time the first cars leave for Clinton and Manchester Road, the pavement is dark again and the day can start.