Regina proposes new strategies to fight winter weather

The City of Regina may be making some changes to how it deals with winter weather.

In the agenda for Wednesday’s executive committee meeting, the idea of a secondary snow storage site was mentioned, as were other improvements to the city’s winter maintenance program.

Administration explained in its review of the program that a secondary snow storage site is needed due to an increase in snow removal operations for city crews and private companies over the past two years.

According to the winter road maintenance review, the cost of stacking, storing and managing the increase in snow volumes is becoming too high. The city is proposing acquiring land to create a second storage spot on either the south or west sides of the city.

Several city-owned sites were looked at but were considered not viable due to accessibility/transportation safety, environmental/drainage impacts, proximity to residential neighbourhoods, and size limitations.

Administration has submitted a business case for consideration in the 2024 to 2028 budget process to acquire the land and build the second snow storage site beginning in 2027. The total cost of the secondary site is expected to be at least $9.2 million.

According to the report, 35,000 trucks visited the current storage site last year and hauled in more than 900,000 cubic metres of snow.

The review said seven storms in the city last winter resulted in six major plowing events. In total, 3,438 kilometres of roads, 2,760 km of alleys and 1,722 km of sidewalks were plowed.

However, residents weren’t impressed — a fact Mayor Sandra Masters acknowledged in January.

Some other proposed improvements for 2023 mentioned in the report include reducing snow ridges on sidewalks, reducing blocked front driveways, reducing ruts in residential areas, and minimizing ridges in parking lanes in residential areas.

In the first two of those initiatives, a trial would be conducted in the northwest part of the city. Crews would clear sidewalks alongside the team plowing the roads to reduce the ridges on sidewalks and to reduce the number of blocked driveways.

In 2024, administration is proposing increased alley plowing and clearing storm drains during plowing operations.

The report says the 2022 budget for snow removal was $8.71 million, but expenditures were $16.96 million due to what were termed “extreme weather events overlapping the 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023 seasons.”

The 2023 winter road maintenance budget was $8.55 million, but administration said year-to-date expenditures already have exceeded that. The city is forecasting a cost for 2023 of $12.94 million based on a five-year average.

According to the review, more storms and increased costs for equipment, materials and contracted services due to inflation since 2021 are the largest contributors to the winter maintenance budget deficits in 2022 and ’23.

As a result, administration has suggested increasing the snow removal budget by $1.88 million to $10.59 million to maintain the current services levels.