City updates plans for snow removal

Whether it be weeks or months away, snow will eventually fall and accumulate on the city streets and highways. Public Works Operations Superintendent Jody Rhone has been working throughout the year to be ready for when that day comes.

In 2010, the city council adopted a snow removal policy and Rhone had several proposed changes that were previously discussed and ready to be adopted. The biggest change is when the snow plows will head out to begin plowing. The previous start time was 4 a.m., no matter when it started snowing. Now, the plows will start when snow accumulates 2 inches, regardless of the time of day or if it is a weekend.

With that change, additional crews from other divisions within public works will help with snow removal because of the potential for around the clock work.

Another change will be the boundaries of the downtown snow removal district, which will expand to the new Miller-Valentine project as well as North Fourth Avenue East in front of the hospital.

“We are putting in the street scape design, which allows for storage of snow, so it can be plowed like a normal street and we do not need to haul the snow away,” Rhone said.

A change praised by downtown businesses is a lift to the parking restrictions during the Nov. 1 through April 30 parking ordinance. Before, all vehicles were to be removed between the hours of 2 and 6 a.m. during the six month time period. Now, the vehicles will only have to be off the streets when the plows are in use.

A valuable tool the department uses to fight ice and snow and one that has been the topic of much debate is salt.

“The main reason we use salt, or sodium chloride, for our streets is for public safety,” Rhone said. “We do it to keep the roads safe, passable for all of the motoring public.”

Rhone referenced a Marquette University study on the use of road salt which said that two hours after salting in a storm, accidents were reduced by 78 percent and four hours after salting it increased to 87 percent. He said that the city purchased 1,000 tons of salt for this season costing $62.78 a ton, or $62,780, to be used for de-icing, anti-icing, brining and pre-wetting. In comparison to other methods used such as calcium chloride, calcium and sodium formate or calcium and magnesium acetate, salt is up to 35 times cheaper.

With about 200 miles of streets to cover, the city is working to continually minimize the amount of salt it uses, Rhone said. Trucks are calibrated with the national salt standards and staff receive ongoing training on the most up to date practices. To put into perspective the amount of salt used on each street, Rhone said that half a cubic foot of salt is used for an entire block on a city street and at the highest output rate 500 pounds of salt are used per lane mile.

Another tool the city uses are ground speed controls in the trucks, which regardless of how slow or fast the truck is going or whether it stops, it will only put out a designated amount per mile. To make sure the trucks are performing correctly, at the beginning of each season all are recalibrated and serviced to the standards set by the city.

Contact Staff Writer Jamee A. Pierson at (641) 792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com.