City council met Wednesday night in a ‘Committee of the Whole’ format to talk snow removal.
Last winter was the first after a number of changes were made to improve service after a disastrous 2013/14 season.
Among those changes is an expanded weather forecasting infrastructure that included a re-calibration of the City’s Vellencher Road weather station and subscription to the ‘Weather Network’. The Weather Network now sends the City detailed forecasts using the Prince George’s weather stations every 4 hours.
City of PG Head Engineer Frank Blues says it’s an important tool
“If we are expecting a heavy snow storm, we have to get our plows sorted out on equipment. But if it’s a marginal snowfall, in certain temperature conditions we might actually want to apply salt or anti-ice.”
Another recommendation of the 2014 Mercury Report was setting a minimum number of graders in the fleet at 10.
The City already owns 5, and the rest were acquired for the winter through leases and retainer contracts. The total cost of acquiring the 5 extra graders for the season was pegged at a minimum of $562k
“The graders aren’t fully utilized for the full 12 months out of the year.” Supervisor of Street Ops Nick Jones said “We need to maintain enough graders that we are able to supply snow services … without having so many pieces of equipment that are underutilized in the summer months.”
Jones also talked about the partnership Prince George has with the Province of BC that allows the two parties to exchange responsibilities for clearing certain roads. The City will clear roads like Victoria, while the Province handles streets like Blackburn because it makes logistical sense for the two teams.
But he did say the system breaks down a bit at intersections.
“Their focus is speed on the highway, and they plow generally with trucks so they don’t have the ability to pick up that snow. So they are plowing and pushing it into the intersection. They’re goal is to keep the highway clear, but it can be a challenge with some of the intersections.”
Frank Blues said that the problem has been a longstanding one, ever since he joined the city over 30 years ago.
Councillor Murry Krause commented saying that they need to try to work with the province to fix the problem because many pedestrian crossings and side walks suffer where highways and city roads meet.
Last winter the City of Prince George spent $6.49M on removing the white stuff, about $700k above average.
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