Yet sleet and snow mean a lot of work for UConn's landscaping crew and some of the mechanical tradespeople employed by the University. Although the state highway department is responsible for plowing Route 195 and North Eagleville Road, it is primarily the landscaping crew that clears off the many sidewalks and side roads on the Storrs campus. If weather conditions are more serious, the plows may start out in the middle of the night. Cancellations can actually make clearing the roads easier because there is less traffic. This place never closes.
People are always here, even over the winter break, for research or basketball games.
The equipment used depends upon the storm. The decision to deploy snowplows is made jointly by the UConn police, the office of facilities management and, in cases of closing, human resources. They decide when the conditions are bad enough to call us out there. When there are two or five cars spread out over the lot, it makes it difficult to get machinery around them. We concentrate on making it safe for everyone.