Extra snow costing City of Regina time and money

The late snow this spring and the big dumps of snow all winter are costing the City of Regina time moving on with seasonal programs and money trying to get all the snow off the roads.

The city has had to push back its spring street sweeping thanks to the recent storms.

“We do that just to make sure that we can effectively undertake the street cleaning program,” explained Tyler Bien, manager of roadway seasonal operations with the city.

Bien said the weather has really delayed the program and crews will need to wait for the weather to warm up before starting up.

“It needs to be consistently above zero where the water isn’t freezing on the road and holding the material on the road so our brooms can pick them up,” said Bien.

The snow and colder weather won’t affect the pothole patching program because it normally doesn’t start until May.

“During the earlier days in the spring, we fill any damaging potholes with a temporary cold mix patch. That is temporary so it does tend to come out of the potholes,” said Bien.

In the 2021 budget, the city reduced its winter road maintenance budget because it had been having fewer snow events and ended up with a surplus every year.

But this year, because of all the snow that has fallen so far, winter road maintenance has nearly hit its budget. Bien said so far, $8.1 million has been spent of the $8.6-million budget.

That doesn’t mean streets will go unplowed next winter, though.

“We can dip into those reserves to make sure that we have the budget available for us to provide any winter road maintenance needs that come for the rest of 2022,” said Bien.