Surrey has already spent two-thirds of their 2017 winter maintenance budget
Posted March 21, 2017 5:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – All the snow Metro Vancouver saw over the last few months wasn’t just a headache for drivers – municipalities have spent millions contending with the aftermath.
Surrey’s engineering operations manager Rob Costanzo says their crews spread 20,000 metric tonnes of salt on the roads since the snow started falling in December. That’s roughly four times what they normally use, even with the rare addition of sand as a supplement.
He adds that the number of potholes they’ve repaired since January has topped 9,000 – roughly three times that of a typical winter.
“We’ve tripled the number of crews that we typically engage to deal with potholes, and they’ve been dealing with it six days a week, ten hours a day, just simply patrolling the streets. When they see a pothole, they repair it.”
Because the city only really had snow to deal with in December, they came in below their $3.6 million winter maintenance budget for 2016. But then the snow kept falling, and they city has now torn through two-thirds of their 2017 budget.
“If we go back to a typical winter season at the tail end of the year we could be within budget. If we have a similar winter next year as we’ve had this winter, we’ll certainly be over budget,” Costanzo adds.
The city has also fielded some 200 claims from drivers regarding pothole damage to their vehicles.
Vancouver meanwhile has topped its $3.6 million snow-clearing budget for the year, including the cost of cleaning up sand and gravel.
