Lewiston uses a pair of quarries and the city's gravel pit. Unlike Portland, both communities have plenty of room for more snow. In Portland, the snow piles up quickly thanks to the hard work of heavy equipment operators who haul snow away at night. After a typical storm, the snow is left in huge mounds in the gutters of streets after being plowed. At night, large trucks tackle the piles with huge snowblower-like devices attached on the front.
Farmers are familiar with the process.
As a harvester travels the rows in a field, the grain is sent down a chute into trucks that ride alongside. When one truck is full, another one takes its place. Likewise, big trucks inch their way along as the blades chomp up the snow and shoot it into trucks lined up alongside. The snowblowers can fill a tri-axle dump truck in just 15 seconds. Fleets of trucks arrive after hours to dump their snow, then head back to collect still more snow.