As frostier days draw nearer, the City of St. Albert is already preparing for the snow clearing work that lies ahead.
Bringing on a parking ban might not make that work any easier, city operations manager John Potter told council at a recent workshop on snow and ice control.
During the Oct. 6 workshop, which was streamed live on YouTube — Potter walked council members through the city’s current snow-clearing procedure, and fielded questions about the ins and outs of snow clearing.
The current service levels the city offers for snow clearing mean St. Albert Trail and Ray Gibbon Drive are top priority for clearing and plowed and sanded within eight hours after two to five centimetres of snow accumulation.
The city’s arterial roads are second priority and cleared to the same standard as the trail and Ray Gibbon Drive. Collector and commercial roads are cleared later, within 16 hours.
The city budgets for residential snow clearing once per year, which typically costs around $450,000. Louise Stewart, senior manager of St. Albert’s public works department, told The Gazette last year that pulling the trigger on residential snow clearing is something the city takes “very seriously.”
Parking ban
Mayor Cathy Heron told Potter she has been wanting to bring in a parking ban to help speed up snow clearing in key corridors, for example along bus routes.
Potter said a major disadvantage to a parking ban would be the need to provide 24-hours notice, meaning the city would not be able to meet its service level of snow clearing after eight hours.
He added that if the city began any portion of the snow clearing before the 24-hour notice-period, residents would be confused as to why the city had started early.
“It becomes very polarizing very quickly,” Potter said.
Potter said there are not many towing companies that would be able to move vehicles around fast enough for the snow clearing to begin, meaning the city may have to pay for that service level.
New equipment needs lie ahead
Going forward, Potter said the city will soon have to invest in additional snow-clearing equipment because of the new land it recently annexed from Sturgeon County.
Currently, the city owns one grader, and contracts in the use of other graders throughout the year as needed. However, the city will need a grader with a larger attachment for the annexation lands, Potter said, and will be able to use it throughout the year due to the additional gravel roadways in the annexation lands.
Potter said the price for a grader can vary, but generally is around $590,000. The grader will come forward as a capital funding request when the city determines it is needed.
Upcoming year
In the upcoming 2022/23 winter season, Potter said he is “really excited” for the city to begin using a new piece of equipment to break up the ice — an icebreaker attachment to pulverize ice and hard-packed snow. The city now has two: one which can be mounted to a sidewalk machine, and one that can be mounted to a loader.
Jay Mason, the city’s director of public operations, said the city picked up the icebreaker attachments as part of its repair, maintain, and replace (RMR) budget instead of getting a replacement loader bucket attachment, a piece of equipment that acts as a scoop.
Potter said the ice-breaker attachment will be especially useful in cul-de-sacs during freeze-thaw cycles, when water runs off houses and builds up as ice in the bulb of the cul-de-sac.
Within St. Albert, the city is responsible for 200 kilometres of sidewalk, Potter said. Instead of sanding the ice, Potter said the machine will help remove the ice entirely, though he noted the process will take time.
