Nielsen Dirtworks INC.

About Nielsen Dirtworks INC.

Rapid Valley sits out where Rapid City's subdivisions give way to open section-line roads and bare fields, and it's exposed enough that a single windy night can drift a driveway shut even without much new snow falling. Nielsen Dirtworks runs the same heavy equipment out there in winter that it uses for grading and excavation the rest of the year, so the driveways and gravel approaches it clears get pushed all the way back to solid ground rather than just skimmed. Plains wind out past the edge of town packs snow hard against the north side of every machine shed and garage, and those spots get worked first before the loose fields drift back over by afternoon. Walkways and steps get shoveled by hand where the equipment is overkill. Salt goes down sparingly, since the wide-open ground out there dries and refreezes fast on its own once the wind picks back up. The crew covers Rapid Valley and the rest of Rapid City's eastern edge.