Snow Removal A Science At Gillette Stadium
FOXBORO (CBS) - If you have tickets to Sunday's Patriots/Dolphins game at Gillette, you can count on all the snow being long gone from parking lots and seats.
A team of about 150 shovel-wielding workers and a contingent of more than 50 plows, front-loaders, and dump trucks have been clearing snow away every day since Sunday.
They hope to be finished by Friday afternoon.
It's an incredible effort. When all is said and done, those dump trucks will have made about 5,000 round trips between Gillette and the parking lots across Route 1.
That's where the tons and tons of snow have been pushed up against the tree line where they won't take up the valuable parking spots.
The Pats pay for all the snow removal, including clearing the sidewalks up and down that stretch of Route 1 so that fans who park off-site won't have to walk on the highway.
Plans for snow removal actually start to take shape in late summer, according the Patriots' Senior Vice President for Operations Jim Nolan. He said that the unusually warm temperatures since the blizzard have helped with the snow removal efforts.
More than 16 inches of snow fell on the more than 500 acres of land that comprise Gillette and Patriot Place.
That's a staggering 16 million cubic feet of snow which, if piled into Gillette Stadium itself would reach some 280 feet in the air - eleven stories above the lights at the top of the stadium.
