Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Works

 

TO:

Charles Soules

FROM:

Mark Thiel

CC:

Mike Perkins

Date:

3/25/2014

RE:

Snow Operations – End of Season Report  2013/2014

 

The 2013 / 2014 snow season could be considered somewhat mild except for one major event that dumped a record amount of snow over a two day span. That Major event began on Tuesday February 4th and continued to snow for the next 24 hours. It dumped 14” of snow and ended up ranked 3rd as the largest amount of snow in any one event.

 

 

The February 4th event encompassed 7 days to resolve at a cost of $268,162.96. This event was truly a team effort for all those involved. Police, Fire/ Medical, Parks & Recreation, Utilities, Public Works and contacted vendors all worked hand in hand to reduce the impact of this event to the community. They all should be complimented on their efforts. Based on the amount of snow, timing and other factors this event was handled in a professional manor and the outcome was very good. For more specific event details please see the attached event report from our weather partner Weather or Not.

 

One of the most challenging pieces to this storm was the need to haul snow from traditional downtown locations, but we also from most cul-de-sacs and almost every major intersection. In total we hauled approximately 327,839 cubic feet of snow. To put that into prospective, if we were to have hauled this snow to Allen Field House it would have piled up to 70 feet deep on the entire court surface. (See attached graphic)

 

This year we have had 13 events, recorded 29.65” of snow at a cost of $1,076,666.30. We do not have a specific budget plan for snow operations, other than the purchase of salt and sand. Fuel, overtime and other related cost for snow operations are absorbed within the annual operating budget for the division. What that means is that the more we spend on overtime, materials and fuel above what has been budgeted for those line items is less that can be directed toward actual street maintenance. For this year that number was approximately $293,184.79.

 

Four of the first five events were freezing rain, which resulted in no snow accumulation but required crews to pretreat and react to slick roadway surfaces. These type of events typically result in more man-hours due to the nature of freeze and re-freeze. The addition of pretreating roadways with salt-brine prior to events continues to significantly reduce the total amount of clean up time. (see attached 2013/2014 Snow Event Tracking Summary Report, Past Year Comparison, and Annual Snow Comparison)

 

Operational Status

Supplies of sand, salt and brine were adequate. We have ordered additional salt to resupply. Over the season we lost one dump truck with a blown engine – this unit was scheduled to be replaced previously in 2014 and its replacement is currently on order.

 

2014 / 2015

We will expand our operation next season with the replacement of two dump trucks equipped with “wing” plows. This will give us a greater capacity for clearing snow on arterials and collectors. This will give us the ability to plow more lane miles in less time.

 

Based on the expansion of operations, to include pretreating and prewetting and with the ability to store additional material we are planning on increasing our on-hand storage capacity from 4,500 tons to 10,000 tons of salt. This does two things; It gives us the ability to take salt shipments in the summer with an anticipated cost reduction and will eliminate the risk of running out of materials and having to order mid-winter.

 

In summary, the City of Lawrence emergency response personnel including Fire / Medical, Police, Public Works, Utilities, Parks & Recreation departments and others continue to provide outstanding level of service to the community regardless of the weather or situation. Overall we had a successful snow operations season. Without the one major event we would have ended up with only 15.65” of snow, putting us below the normal average.