Agenda - Public Works Committee - 04/15/2008

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CASE # / . SUMMARY FOR 2007-2008 SNOW REMOVAL SEASON By: Grant Riemer, Streets Supervisor Background: This case is meant to be a brief review ofthe 2007-2008 snow removal season. The snow removal season consisted of 7 major plowing events with 4 of the events happening in December and 16 minor events. Major events consist of calling in a full crew, plus part time staff. Minor events normally consist of sanding intersections, plowing/sanding main routes, drift control, etc.... Our first full scale plowing operation was on 12/2/07. This season we started to incorporate pre-wetting to our snow and ice control program. We use a liquid product called Caliber MI000. MI000 is a com based product combined with a 30% Magnesium Chloride solution. The advantage is a lower operating temperature compared to straight salt and also a reduction in "scatter and bounce." Scatter-bounce is when dry salt comes off the spinner and hits the roadway. By pre- wetting the salt at the spinner it has more of a tendency to stay where it is needed instead of rolling off to the edge of the road or into the ditch. We had limited opportunity to use the chemical this year, but it did seem to work as promised. By next season we will have 3 trucks equipped with pre-wetting equipment. The remaining trucks will be upgraded as the budget allows. Conditions vary every winter, but we should be able to lower our overall salt use in coming years. Our overall salt use was approximately 1200 ton this season. This year the APW A awarded the Shingle Creek Water Shed District with its Excellence in Snow and Ice Control Award for implementing the same pre-wetting technology. They are required to lower the overall chloride level in the watershed district by 71 %. Complaints that we received phone calls on were similar in number to most years: Mailbox damage-12 Sod damage-25 Misc.-71 The miscellaneous category covers everything from snow at the end of my driveway to a sidewalk that got missed or an icy intersection. This year generated more calls for sidewalk and trail maintenance than normal. We had a lot of drifting snow this winter which plugged our sidewalks and trails which required going over them 2-3 times between snow falls. Our equipment held up well with only routine maintenance required for the most part. We did bend the blade on the sidewalk machine this spring, but that repair was made in house. Overall it was a fairly normal season of snow removal.