The Riverhead Highway Department has received top honors in a statewide invention competition for a device its workers use to remove snow fence poles.
The award-winning device consists of a single wheel attached to a steel frame. A small metal sleeve fits over the top of a fence pole and connects to the metal frame, which acts as a lever to dislodge the pole when its handle is pushed toward the ground.
The invention won first place in this year’s Build a Better Mousetrap Competition, organized by the New York State Local Technical Assistance Program Center – Cornell Local Roads Program. The annual competition invites local transportation agencies across New York State to submit innovations ranging from new tools and equipment modifications to improved processes that enhance safety, reduce costs, boost efficiency or improve the quality of transportation services.
Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski, who is credited as the device’s inventor, said the tool has significantly improved the process of removing snow fence poles. Prior to its use, workers had to manually pull each pole from the ground.
“It was very time consuming, and sometimes injuries would happen,” Zaleski said.
He would know. Zaleski spent the first 15 years of his career pulling fence poles by hand. About a decade ago, while heading the department’s repair shop, he set out to make the job easier.
“I found a golf cart wheel — I weld a lot — and I welded this thing up and tried it out,” Zaleski said. “I should have patented it,” he added with a laugh.
The device is easily rolled from one pole to the next and is “simple, quick [and] efficient,” Zaleski said. “No one gets hurt anymore.” Highway workers, who install and remove approximately three miles of snow fence each year, “love it,” he added. Snow fencing is put up before winter each year along farm fields to help prevent snow drifts that can make roads impassable.
“It’s just a simple, great device that I’m glad was recognized statewide,” Zaleski said.
The New York State Local Technical Assistance Program Center praised the Riverhead Highway Department for displaying “exemplary ingenuity” in its press release announcing the award. “Overall, this innovation has streamlined the workflow, increased productivity, and contributed to a safer work environment for the crew,” it said.
As the top winner in New York, the snow fence remover will go head-to-head with other transportation agency inventions across the country. Winners of statewide competitions are automatically entered into the national competition, hosted by the Federal Highway Administration.
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