City wants your feedback on snow, ice maintenance

The city is inviting residents to give input on Regina’s winter operations through an online survey.

“The City is currently reviewing the winter maintenance policy, service levels, costs and impacts of winter operations, and we want your input,” a City of Regina news release said. “Your survey input, along with other research, will help us develop recommendations for consideration by City Council in late 2020.”

Operations include prioritization and sequencing of street plowing, ice control and snow removal.

Residents already have taken to a City of Regina Facebook post made last week about the snow removal policy to express concerns. Some complaining about time left between plowing and sanding, a delay they say makes the roads “skating rinks” until the sand is laid down.

“Sanders do not follow behind graders as it can sometimes take many hours to clear snow from each category and would leave many areas of Regina without ice control for long periods of time,” replied the city.

“We monitor all category streets on a regular basis and ice control is applied intermittently in required spot sections such as intersections, hills and curves.”

Others voiced concerns over snow removal in school zones. In response, the city assured residents that its policy requires a school bus zone to be cleared of snow ridges within 48 hours of a systematic snow plow.

Others thanked the city. “Thank you City of Regina for your dedication to our community,” one man wrote.

The city’s 2020 winter maintenance budget is $8.9 million.

A colder, icier winter had resulted in more than 10 times the number of winter-related calls for service to the city as of mid-january, compared to the same last year.

At that time, the city had applied more than 7,300 tonnes of sand and salt to help with slippery road conditions. In a report released in October, the city revealed a plan to expand its use of liquid salt by adopting pre-wetting technology, but that had not been implemented as of January due to extreme cold temperatures, during which the technology is less effective.

With a less-than-average snowfall this winter so far, the city also delayed the addition of 11 kilometres of snow routes, that will bring the total kilometres of snow routes in Regina up to 16. Plans are in place to add the routes when a heavy snowfall hits.

“The City of Regina’s winter maintenance program strives to support the safety of residents, as well as the attractiveness, and economic viability of our community,” said the release. “To achieve this, we follow a winter maintenance policy which guides service levels for our snow plowing, ice control, and spring run-off activities.”

Any changes to the Winter Maintenance Policy as a result of the review and public consultations will come before council for consideration in the third quarter of 2020.

The survey is available at Regina. ca/wintersurvey. The city asks residents to complete it before March 4. The city’s winter maintenance policy can be found at Regina.ca.

The ... winter maintenance program strives to support the safety of residents