Battle of the Blades: SDDOT vs NDDOT - Keloland

The South Dakota Department of Transportation is holding its own version of March Madness.

But instead of brackets filled with names of college basketball teams, they’re names of snow plows submitted by kids from all over South Dakota.

These snow plows and the people who operate them are the driving force behind what’s called ‘Battle of the Blades.’

It’s a friendly competition between South Dakota and North Dakota.

It started three years ago during one of our worst winters in recent memory.

“It was a very long winter for everyone including our drivers, so it was kind of a fun way to get our public engaged and keep them interested and focused in on our operations,” Craig Smith

Here’s how it works.

Kids from all over KELOLAND came up with a number of names for the snow plows and were put into brackets just like the NCAA Tournament. Instead of competing on a basketball court, the public has been voting on which ones are the best and get to move on.

Here is a look at where the bracket sits now.

On the South Dakota side; ‘Scoop! There It Is’ is in the final four with ‘Thaw Patrol.’

“Thaw Patrol” was the name submitted by Winner Elementary’s First Grade class.

‘Scoop, There It Is!’ was named by a 3-year old named Pete, along with his family.

“I love it, I really do, I really love it,” Lead Highway Maintenance Worker, Chad Shull said.

‘Scoop There It Is’ is driven by Lead Highway Maintenance Worker, Chad Shull.

He drove it to Pete’s daycare in Rapid City, so all the kids could check it out.

“I took it over to the daycare and Pete got in and he blasted the air horn and all the little kids started crying, we found out the air horn wasn’t a good idea,” Shull said.

But the ‘Battle of the Blades’ is a great way to drive people to the DOT’s web site and learn more about resources like 511 and what the drivers do for the public.

“I think it’s pretty cool, I think it’s getting a lot of South Dakotans interacting with the DOT and engages them, so it’s a great thing,” Shull said.

While you’re there, be sure to vote for your favorite snow plow name.

Don: It’s based on voting?

Craig: Yeah the public can go out there, we encourage everyone to go out and vote and select the winners to get in the championship against North Dakota DOT and then choose one winner between the Dakotas.

The top name from South Dakota will take on the Top name from North Dakota on Monday.
You can go to the DOT web site to vote for your favorite name, click here.

View the story on Keloland: https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/battle-of-the-blades-sddot-vs-nddot/