By Sheldon Spackman

Steady As She Goes

No changes planned for Red Deer’s Snow and Ice Control program next winter

Jul 15, 2020 | 4:54 PM

Red Deer City council received an update on the City’s Snow and Ice Control program Wednesday which highlighted the success of a piloted plowing program on Green and Grey routes this past winter.

According to City officials, the 2019/2020 snow season was the fifth year of the fully phased-in snow and ice control program. The information provided was described as a performance overview of the past season, with remarks on operational improvements, piloted programs, a public engagement plan, and considerations for future year operations.

Last December, several operational improvements were identified for the 2019/2020 winter season with the intent to address mobility, windrows, and on-street parking concerns on residential streets.

Looking back, City Manager Allan Seabrooke says the past winter was much milder than normal.

“We had 125 centimetres of accumulated snow, but what was unique about this past winter is that we had 67 freeze-thaw days and that is substantially more than what we normally have,” said Seabrooke. “That actually presented some other issues on traction control with ice forming that we had to deal with. But we were able to be flexible and nimble and we were able to modify the programs with the additional level of service change that council allocated to us to deal with those changing weather conditions.”

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As a result, Seabrooke says Public Works crews were able to meet all snow and ice control levels and service targets for all roadways, sidewalks, trails and transit stops in Red Deer.

Seabrooke noted city crews were successfully able to adhere to the City’s published plowing schedule.

“There was increased use of anti-icing brines and that resulted in less sand use which is favourable on many counts. And we had more pre-trigger plowing on both the Purple and Red routes. Another good success was we had an increase in subscription to Notify Red Deer by our citizens, which was great.”

In terms of challenges, Seabrooke points to parked vehicles not being removed from residential streets before neighbourhoods are plowed.

“Tickets were up by 34 per cent across the board. We really don’t have any obvious single reason for that. That total ended up being 3,249.”

Councillor Lawrence Lee tabled a motion calling for City administration to bring back a strategy by next snow season that would look at improvements to eliminate all vehicles from streets for snow clearing and street sweeping – potentially saving the City tax dollars. The motion was defeated, as other members of council felt there were already measures in place to address the issue which need more time to get the public onboard.

New this past winter was the City rolling out its public engagement programming regarding snow and ice control.

“Although COVID-19 did cut the program short, we still were able to have 701 people that did participate in person at the few sessions we were able to have prior to COVID,” Seabrooke explained. “Then we dealt with our online program and that gave us a lot of feedback on the Snow and Ice Control program. From this engagement, we confirmed our understanding of what the community values from the Snow and Ice Control program.”

Seabrooke noted that continued pressure points revolve around windrows, on-street parking, and signage.

“The feedback also identified that opposing views from the public are common-place,” he suggested. “As one method of snow plowing was suitable to some, others preferred not to have the plowing, as that was favourable to them. There’s no single snow plowing program or solution that will fit all of the public interest and we would be well-served to better inform the public of why we do what we do.”

Seabrooke admitted it was good to review the City’s Snow and Ice control program, but notes they’re not recommending any changes heading into next winter.

“Other than continuing our hybrid approach on the Grey routes and modifying the Green route program that we put in place this year as our new operational standard,” says Seabrooke. “We will continue to look for operational efficiencies, we continue to do our research and find new ways for effective traction and we’ll continue to fine-tune these and find the balance between both mobility and on-street parking, especially on our Grey routes.”