SNU Division of Property & Facilities Management Ready to Battle Snow

On January 31, it started to snow around 3 pm and the weather got worse as time passed by. In less than an hour, the heavy snowfall caused a traffic jam along the main road that circles the campus. The city buses that circle the campus (5516, 5511 and 5513) follow this road. Due to the heavy snowfall, city buses couldn't enter the main gate and bring students in and out of the campus. Those who were at the College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences had to walk all the way to the main gate.

The next morning, the question whether buses were able to enter the campus was naturally a hot topic on the student online community SNULIFE and the SNU SNS. Luckily, the first students to arrive on campus were able to give their friends the message,"all roads are clear".

Who were the Santa's elves that magically whisked away the ankle-deep snow overnight? It's easy to forget that there are people working hard and anonymously so that we can move around campus safely, but they shouldn't be taken for granted.

The bus service was back to normal thanks to the 23 employees of the Division of Property & Facilities Management who had stayed up all night to clear snow on the roads. The Division of Property & Facilities Management is in charge of clearing the snow on campus. The Management’s first priority is to clear the main road, which is crucial to securing smooth traffic circulation. In addition, SNU has 253 cleaners and 162 security guards to help out.

The main road on campus is about 7 kilometers long and it takes about 30 minutes to spread the salt (KCl). Sometimes the snow removal squad has to carry out the work more than once because of incessant snowfall. On January 31, the temperature dropped to minus 8 degrees Celsius and the snowfall was so heavy that spreading the salt wasn't sufficient to remove the snow completely. In addition to using the given equipment such as wind blowers and tractors, the squad had to manually remove snow in some parts of the campus. Last year, the daily average amount of salt needed to remove snow was 7.2 tons. On this day, the situation was so bad that the squad had to use 22 tons of salt.

KIM Yong-Ok, deputy director of the Division of Property & Facilities Management, gave an account of the battle against snow on that day."We saw the weather forecast saying that it would snow before noon and got ready. It snowed from 3 pm to 7 pm and we immediately got down to work. The snow piled up to about 6.1 cm. Leaving work on time wasn't an option because we had to monitor the removal process until 11 pm. The next day the squad had to arrive at 6 in the morning and spread salt for 3 hours. On some occasions employees were summoned after midnight."

KIM appreciates the sense of duty among the field workers who come to work in the middle of the night when there's an emergency like this."It is crucial that the SNU community understand the difficulties of clearing snow," he believes."Gwanak campus is made of hills and traffic is relatively light. That’s why the snow doesn't melt easily. It's frustrating when the weather forecast calls for mild snow and you get a blizzard instead."

Written by JANG Hyo Jeong, SNU English Editor, fatalbonds@snu.ac.kr  ?
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com