SASKATOON – City crews are set to tackle snow covered roads in Saskatoon once the white stuff comes down.
City officials said on Thursday crews are ready to sand, salt and plow streets 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week after a snow event with several improvements in store.
“We will be engaged in multiple pilot projects in conjunction with the private sector involving our anti-icing, de-icing and sanding programs,” says Pat Hyde, director of public works.
One of those is pre-wetting Circle Drive and other high-traffic streets with a salt brine or other chemicals before applying sand.
“For anti-icing, a chemical is applied to the road before it snows which acts as an ice bond-breaker to prevent the ice from forming on the roadway surface,” said Hyde.
“This will enable snow grading equipment to be more effective and prevent ice building up. Our intent is to utilize this on select sections of the high-speed roadways/bridges to monitor its performance.”
Another improvement, say city officials, is activating an 18-vehicle snow train to remove collected snow along the edges of Circle Drive, bridges and overpasses.
Last winter, a car went over a snow bank on the Circle Drive North Bridge and landed on ice on the South Saskatchewan River. The driver was able to escape.
There will also be more frequent removal of snow piles from school zones and a more efficient and cost-effective approach to snow grading by expanding private contractor maintenance areas from two zones to four.
Snow routes have also been changed and placed into two groups – Green Circle which includes Circle Drive and primary arterial roadways or Blue Square.
Temporary parking bans will be declared on those routes after an extreme snow event to allow graders to clean streets. Green Circle routes will be cleared first within a 24-hour period followed by Blue Square roadways.
City-wide neighbourhood grading will happen once the snowpack is a minimum of 15 centimetres.
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