(Radio Iowa) – A sort of snowplow driving school is getting underway this week for hundreds of Iowa Department of Transportation workers who will be using those big orange machines to keep our roads clear of ice and snow in the season ahead. Craig Bargfrede, the DOT’s winter operations administrator, says trailers containing sophisticated snowplow simulators are being set up at many DOT garages across the state.

“It provides realistic training in the simulator,” Bargfrede says. “Ultimately, it’s refreshing our folks on winter driving skills, puts them in scenarios that are similar to being out on the road, but it does it in a much safer environment, and it doesn’t put wear and tear on our trucks.”

DOT Snowplow cam

Ideally, before the snow flies in Iowa, a wide cross-section of DOT drivers will have brushed up on their snowplow skills. “Each year, we shoot to get right around 500 across the state,” Bargfrede says, “which is about a third of our force, when you include both our full-time staff and then the seasonal staff that we get each year.” Bargfrede has been in the simulators himself and says the experience is very close to being in the large, lumbering vehicles in all sorts of difficult conditions.

“The scenarios are very realistic. The seat that you sit in, the controls are very realistic and very comparable to actually being in the truck,” Bargfrede says. “There’s such things as if you should kind of drift over to the edge of the road and you hit the rumble strips, the seat will actually shake.”

While this past Sunday was the start of fall, Bargfrede knows winter weather can sometimes arrive in Iowa early, and his goal is to have all crews and equipment ready for the roads by October 15th.