NY highway boss builds no-cost pole remover, cuts 3-week job in half, wins national award

A discarded golf-cart wheel and a piece of scrap box tubing have earned a New York highway department national recognition. Riverhead Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski built a simple snow-fence pole remover after seeing workers struggle to pull frozen poles from the ground by hand. The homemade tool cost nothing, reduced a job that once took about three weeks to roughly a week and a half, and helped prevent the back strain and injuries associated with the old method. The Riverhead News-Review reported that the invention won the Pioneer Award in the Federal Highway Administration’s 2026 Build a Better Mousetrap national competition. FHWA says the award recognised Riverhead’s use of entirely repurposed materials to reduce physical strain while improving productivity and safety.