By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Lethbridge’s snow removal budget takes a big hit

Mar 5, 2018 | 4:51 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The near-weekly snow falls, wind events and consistently cold temperatures so far this winter pushed Lethbridge’s snow and ice removal budget well into the red in 2017.

According to Director of Infrastructure Services Doug Hawkins, crews have been working around the clock since Christmas to try and keep up with the winter storms. Hawkins addressed City Council at Monday’s meeting, after Councillor Rob Miyashiro inquired about the annual budget.

“This has been the most unusual year in terms of the frequency of events and the fact that it frankly, hasn’t really Chinooked [sic]. So, everything has stayed cold and so we really haven’t seen any melting.”

Hawkins says between fresh snow events, and the subsequent winds that move a lot of that snow around, workers have been trying to keep up not only with the plowing, but the windrowing, and trucking it all to the city’s two dump sites.

“The annual budget is just about $4.5 million for snow and ice control for the city. We’ve overspent in 2017 by about $550,000. And then we started fresh on Jan. 1, and we’ve spent $2.5 million already to March 5 out of the $4.5 million for 2018. So that only leaves $2 million to finish off this winter period, and then to deal with winter when it comes again in November.”

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The snow is taken to one of two sites in the city: one located on 43 St. South near the Exhibition grounds, and the other at the north end of University Drive, on the city’s west side.

So far, Hawkins estimates that more than 10,000 tandem truckloads of snow have been taken to those two locations.

“We have some heavy equipment out there that is stacking the snow and plateauing the snow and making room for the next wave of trucks that have to haul snow to those locations, if we do get another six or seven-inch snow. Typically, every snow storm over four to six inches requires us to physically windrow it up, snow blow it into the backs of tandem trucks and haul it to those sites.”

He explains that the vast majority of the $2.5 million dollars spent so far, is on truck rentals to haul the snow away when it’s windrowed.

“The city doesn’t own very many tandem trucks,” Hawkins says. “We rely on contractors to actually provide that service for us during the winter. They’re thankful all those guys are making lots of money this year, and we’re thankful that they have the trucks and the truck drivers to help us when we have winters like this.”

And because those snow mountains are so huge now, they aren’t likely to completely melt until sometime in July. They are designed to melt so that the water goes directly into adjacent drainage ponds and doesn’t flood neighboring properties.

To this point, Hawkins says they’ve completed the Priority 1 and 2 routes and should be finished Priority 3 routes by mid-week. There are still numerous paths, and pedestrian walkways that are either snowed in, or haven’t been cleared at all this winter. However, he doesn’t expect that to happen for another couple of weeks.

If there are any residential roads that are becoming impassable, he advises people to contact 403-320-3850 or to contact them via their website at http://www.lethbridge.ca