image text: clearing snow in Alaska

Clearing snow in Alaska


Three Volvo wheel loaders help keep Alaska’s Anchorage International Airport open whatever the weather.


No matter how much snow falls at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport the facility never shuts due to accumulation. Three Volvo L330E wheel loaders supplied by dealer Construction Machinery Industrial (CMI) make sure of that.

Working in extreme conditions with temperatures plunging way below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 °C), the loaders operate in an area surrounded by natural beauty. Anchorage lies between the Chugach Mountains to the east and Knik Arm of Cook Inlet to the west.

With a mix of commercial airlines, courier and cargo services totalling 56 different carriers operating from the airport, the facility’s maintenance department has to keep runways and ramps open at all times.


The maintenance department takes pride in the fact the airport has never shut due to snow accumulation and aims to keep it that way. Production output from its snow clearing equipment is therefore crucial.

Dan Frisby, the department’s equipment maintenance foreman who takes charge of an equipment fleet totalling 380 items, comments how impressed he is with the throughput work crews are obtaining from the Volvo L330E wheel loaders. He says it comes on the back of a favourable experience with a Volvo L220E model purchased some years previously.

“Performance from these new machines has been excellent. The loaders have provided a 66% increase in production. Just one L330E surpasses the performance of three other machines in our fleet,” he reports.

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