When I was a kid, there was a golf course in a friend's backyard. In recent years, they turned it into a small townhouse development. Not sure of the number of driveways, but it has to be at least 200. It's got a few roads in it too, that are cleared by the contractor who plows it. Because my friend's house has a clear view of a part of the development, and he was my shoveler for a few years, standing in his yard, or looking off his deck we could clearly see the contractor performing snow removal. I haven't seen them do it in a few years, but here's how they used to do it.
When snow was on the way, or forecasted, a lowboy would show up with 5 little bobcat skid steers on it. They would leave the lowboy on site. Next to it, was a Case 580 size backhoe, and a single axle GMC, like a Top Kick, with a 10' blade. When they cleared the complex, they did it the same every time. Two 2wd crew cabs would show up with operators, and a few shovelers. The skid steers pushed all the snow (or most of it) out into the street, and the "Top Kick" dump would take it away. The dump just kept going around pushing the snow to the sides. They had a pick up, with a straight blade, that would go around and open up driveways that were cleared after each section was done. Then final clean up was done with the skid steers on their way back to the low boy. The system must have worked well, because they did it the same way for the 3 years I watched them do it. It took them about 5 hours to do. I know, because that's how long my route took on average then. When I dropped off my shoveler, they were loading the skid steers onto the lowboy. Most of the time, they did all the plowing at night if possible. That way, no one had to get out. If someone came home, there was always a skid steer near by to open up their driveway for them to get in, and then go back to plowing. The backhoe was used to clean up intersections, and load salt into the dump.
Now with pusher boxes, plows, and V plows, I'm sure it could be done even faster. Back then, they ran the front bucket on the Bobcats. They were (and are) a big landscape company, and this account kept their Bobcats busy when it snowed. Like we all know, a machine that sits all winter, is a waste. They found a way to use most of their equipment all winter long.
~Chuck
I'd like to bid on something like that.
