City adds more salt to its arsenal ahead of winter
Vancouver makes several upgrades to be better prepared for a snowy winter
Vancouver is bringing more salt to the table as it prepares to battle Old Man Winter’s worst.
The city, which was ill-prepared for last winter’s record snowfalls and freezing temperatures that paralyzed parts of the region, boosted its snow response plans for this season.
Those plans include trucking in more road salt, something that was in short supply last year.
The U.S. National Weather Service’s climate prediction centre says there is a 65 to 75 per cent chance that La Nina conditions will lead to another snowy winter up and down the west coast of North America.
In preparation, Vancouver has increased its salt inventory to 8,000 tonnes from 2,700 and has expanded its brine storage tank capacity to 136,000 litres from 50,000.
“Last winter was an exceptional winter,” says Jerry Dobrovolny, Vancouver’s general manager of engineering services. “We estimate that it was a once-in-30-year event, but we’ve learned valuable lessons that have allowed us to follow our ethos of continuous improvement to ultimately design higher levels of service for future winter seasons.”
Last January, residents lined up for hours at 10 different fire halls to load up on free salt provided by the city — and many left emptyhanded.
Vancouver boosted its snowclearing budget from $780,000 to $1.6 million annually. The city also spent $4.5 million to purchase equipment, upgrade the public works yards, and install traffic cameras.
Last winter, Vancouver spent more than $1.1 million on salt alone. The city says it updated its salt contracts to secure expanded supplies at a lower price. The city will have crews on call 24 hours a day and work with a meteorologist for tailored Vancouver-specific weather predictions. When snow or freezing temperatures are predicted, engineering crews will make sure streets are salted, brined or plowed depending on the conditions.
City council also approved a number of snow response improvements for 2017-18, which include expanded snowplow coverage of pedestrian pathways, arterial corner ramps, bus stops and priority laneways required to assist in garbage collection.