City snow-removal budget is taking a beating
Lethbridge has already burned through more than half of its snow budget for 2018, says the City’s director of infrastructure services.
The City’s annual budget for snow and ice management is around $4.5 million.
“We’ve spent $2.5 million already to March 5,” Doug Hawkins said Monday during city council’s regular meeting. “So that only leaves $2 million to finish off this winter period, and then to deal with winter weather when it comes back in November.”
In 2017, the City overspent by close to $550,000.
Hawkins said while there have been single-snow events larger than the city has seen this year, there have been an unusually high number of smaller events and fewer chinooks, which have caused challenges.
Hawkins estimates more that 10,000 tandem truckloads of snow have been moved off city streets this winter. The vast majority of the snow and ice management budget has been spent on truck rentals. The City subcontracts hauling services to local businesses.
“The most expensive part of our operation isn’t the snow plows and sanders we have,” he said. “When we’re in the windrowing, and blowing, and hauling mode, then we’re spending money.”
“They’re thankful, because those guys are all making lots of money this year,” he added. “And we’re thankful that they have the trucks and the truck drivers to help us like this.”
As of this past weekend, City crews have completed priority one and two plowing and are expected to finish up priority three plowing this week. Additionally, windrowing and snow removal has been completed downtown and few are left in other areas of the city.
Hawkins said there are also a number of areas requiring additional attention, including parking areas, lanes and handicap access areas. These areas could still require another week to clean up.
City pathways are also behind schedule and Hawkins said work on those is expected in the next couple weeks.
“We are way behind in terms of sidewalks and pathways adjacent to public property,” he said. “Parks, for instance.” The City has a long list of outstanding areas to be dealt with. In some places, pathways have been clogged with as much as three feet of windblown snow and ice. These areas require additional equipment to deal with.
“The only way to get rid of that is with Bobcats and trucks and loaders,” he said. “That is a backlog we are dealing with, and it will probably be about two weeks, just given the backlogs of those areas we’re dealing with.”
With warm weather allegedly around the corner, Hawkins said the snow dump sites are fully designed to store snow during cold weather and then manage runoff in the spring as well.
“They’ve got treatment ponds, and drainage works so regardless of how much snow we manage to squeeze into those two locations, that when the spring does come and it starts to melt, it will melt safely without flooding the adjacent properties.”
Overall, most roads in the city are passable. But Hawkins said anyone with local concerns, such as drifting or ice build-up, is encouraged to call the Public Operations line at 403-320-3850 to be added to a list for responses.