Heavy storms see city plow through half of season’s snow removal budget
Windsor has likely plowed through one-half of its $4-million snow removal budget for 2018 thanks to the most recent storms that dropped 30 centimetres of snow on the city.
“It’s pretty substantial,” said city operations manager Dwayne Dawson. “Our estimation is we’re going to be up around the neighbourhood of $2 million for this event once it’s all done.”
The plowing began at 3 a.m. Friday morning and continued nonstop at $20,000 dollars per hour until Monday evening, which doesn’t include salting.
The city has had 23 city and contractor snowplows out on the roads since Friday, as well as 45 pieces of heavy equipment machinery.
The contractors wrapped up their work Monday night and the city removed its snow emergency status effective Monday at midnight.
The initial storm dumped 20 cm of snow on the city. By Saturday the cleanup crew struggled to keep up with the snow removal when 10 cm more fell, bringing the total snowfall to 30 cm. By early Sunday morning, the city declared a snow emergency and urged motorists to stay off roads and to remove cars from city streets to allow for plowing.
The snow removal budget follows the calendar year and last year between January and April the city spent below normal on snow removal.
“Actually last year, because of the December we had, we actually ended up using up the majority of our budget for last year,” said Dawson, who said city plows had to be called out 14 times in December 2017, which he said was unusually high.
“We were a little busier in December that we usually are. We were in a good position before we got to December.”
By late Monday afternoon, the city expected to have residential streets completed with at least one pass. The main routes throughout the city are in good condition and most side streets have been plowed. However, the city does not plow down to bare pavement so snow will remain until warmer temperatures and salt have a chance to work.
Dawson said regardless of what the weather brings for the rest of the winter, the streets will be cleared when necessary.
“We recognize the budget is what it is but we also have to make the city streets passable and safe,” said Dawson.
“Even though there is a specified budget, it will not stop us from continuing to clear the streets — even if we overrun.”
Any cost overruns in the snow removal budget are covered by money from reserves and through efficiencies elsewhere.
“There were a couple of winters there where it was substantially over ( budget) because of substantial storms,” said Dawson.
“We look across our entire department. We have operating variances across our entire department, so we try to offset that with savings that might be experienced in other departments.”
Municipal parking lots were opened free of charge so residents could move their vehicles off the street. But regular enforcement will resume Tuesday at 9 a.m. The city was also asking residents to wait until Tuesday to call 311 to complain about unplowed streets.
Residents and business owners are reminded to keep sidewalks on their property clear. Also, under the Highway Traffic Act and City of Windsor bylaws, residents are prohibited from shovelling snow back onto the street while clearing sidewalks and driveways.
With warmer temperatures expected later this week, the city is actively opening up covered catch basins in the road to help with drainage as the snow melts.
Residents are encouraged to clear property catch basins as well, and if a blocked or plugged catch basin or drain is spotted on the road, residents are asked to call 311.