SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The race to clear thousands of lane miles of streets in Sioux Falls is underway.

As the snow plows clear the streets, there’s a crew monitoring every aspect of the cleanup.

The Street Maintenance Division has its own command center, watching intersections…

“Some routes you could, so therefore you’re not going to wait for everyone to get going, you know.”

Keeping tabs on machinery…

“My wipers, they only work on high and they won’t park.”

And assisting their own…

“Couple of the garage guys need assistance getting to work.”

Street Operations Manager Dustin Hansen has a seat at the table morning, noon, and night during snow alerts.

“We’ll put in 13-, 14-hour days, so they’re long days and not much sleep but we’ll get through it,” Street Operations Manager Dustin Hansen said.

12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day are nothing new for equipment operators. After working around the clock to clean up January’s storms, the past few weeks caught Hansen off guard.

“I was approving 40-hour time sheets and I was like there’s got to be something wrong here because they were putting 80- 90-hour weeks in before that, so we’re going to go back to those 80-, 90-hour weeks, Hansen said.

Hansen says long days will be the norm through at least next week, thanks in no small part to the wind.

“If we didn’t have that wind, we probably would have been off emergencies as soon as it’s done snowing. Last night, before midnight, the roads looked pretty good but then we got another three to four inches, that wind wreaks havoc on the outskirts of town,” Hansen said.

As for how you can help the cause…

“If you don’t need to be on the streets, just stay off the streets,” Hansen said.

Click HERE to visit the city’s snow information page, including the snow progress tracker.