Snowplow driveway dam

[rhu]

I wonder... How strong/heavy would a structure have to be to act as a dam at the foot of my driveway to prevent the snowplows from plowing me in? 'Cuz it took me half an hour to dig out this morning, after it took me half an hour to dig out last night (after the snow stopped and I figured they were done plowing).

Comments

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

We were plowed in by the sidewalk plow. :/

How would it help?

[jikamens.livejournal.com]

If you put up a dam at the bottom of they driveway, then wouldn't the plow simply push snow against the dam, just as it pushes snow against cars parked in the street (which is what I had to dig out from twice last night)? You would then have to shovel all the snow that got pushed against the dam, wouldn't you?

Re: How would it help?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

It would help because when the plow reaches the driveway there's a "snow vacuum" there and the snow that's in front of the plow "empties out" into my driveway. If there were a snow dam there I'd still have to do a little digging out but most of the snow on the plow would continue along, the same way that it does when the plow is next to the pile that the previous plow plowed on the berm.

Re: How would it help?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I wondered the same thing. (BTW when did you get an account?)

Re: How would it help?

[jikamens.livejournal.com]

I've had a LJ account for a while, probably created it around when somebody syndicated my blog here (don't remember who it was that set that up).

Re: How would it help?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That might have been me, it was a while ago so I'm not sure... I hadn't noticed your account, though.

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

Get a plywood board and load up two trashbarrels each about half way with bricks. Lean the board up against the (house-side) barrels, and put something on the road side to keep the board in place. I think that as long as the board doesn't stick out in such a way that the plow catches it and rips it out of the driveway (a reflector post on the live end should help), you will be fine. Having the thing become airborne in a high wind is imho more of a problem; most of the snowplow forces should not move the panel.

I'm figuring that the plow blade is at most 12' long x 1' high, and the snow pushed in front of it is at most 1' deep for a road-speed plow. That gives you 12 cu. ft. of snow, weighing around 750 lbs. Figure only 1/4 of the blade dumps into the driveway at any given pass, so the weight of the snow hitting the dam is around 200 lbs. Most of that weight is arriving parallel to the dam, so I'm going to guesstimate 75-100 lbs actual normal force, which is probably a generous estimate. Two barrels 1/3-1/2 full of bricks should put up enough resistance to movement.

Now, do you want to move those? That's another question. But they can be dragged aside on slippery ground a lot more easily than plow-packed semi-frozen snow can be shoveled.

[introverte.livejournal.com]

Ah, the voice of sanity. My solution was to stand at the end of the driveway with a shotgun, and when the plow comes around, lock eyes with the driver.

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

It sounded like he wanted an engineering solution. Your solution is more psychology.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

And besides, in a showdown between a shotgun and a snowplow, my money's on the guy with the 12-ton piece of equipment.