Neither Cold Nor Wind Chills Stop Our Inspectors

Today is a lovely, mild day around our Tampa, Florida, office, home to most of our bridge inspection group. It was 63 degrees with 7 mph winds at 11 a.m., heading for an afternoon high of 65 degrees.

But our Wisconsin-based bridge inspectors confronted a very different reality this morning. They were hard at work inspecting Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Clairemont Avenue Pedestrian Bridge in Eau Claire – outside – where the temperature was minus 10, the wind was 15 mph, and the wind chill was MINUS 31! (The photo below shows the temperature warmed all the way up to minus 7.)

How cold is that? It’s so cold that most schools in the area are closed. It’s so cold that exposed skin can be frostbitten in 10 to 15 minutes. “Brrr” hardly covers it!

This project for the technical college required the use of a rented lift towed by an Ayres Associates truck, plus assistance from Eau Claire County employees and the use of their equipment for traffic control on the busy street, so the work gets done when the equipment and staff are available. Inspections must also be completed regularly, and this bridge inspection was due in a limited window of availability for equipment and inspectors alike. Layers of warm clothing help, but it’s still cold work.

But our staff is used to dealing with the cold. After all, Eau Claire is No. 5 on the list of the 25 coldest cities in America. The Niche data website compiled the list by looking at the coldest average low temperatures during winter over the past 30 years. Eau Claire’s average low temperature for December through March is 12 degrees (a veritable heat wave compared with today). Our Green Bay and Madison staff can be proud that their cities made the list as well, with Green Bay averaging 15 degrees and Madison averaging 17 degrees.