EQPW Commissioner overviews Lexington’s January winter storm response
In last Thursday’s Council Meeting, Councilmembers heard an update from Nancy Albright, Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works (EQPW), on Lexington’s snow plan after the severe snow and ice storms that hit Lexington in early January.
You can read more about Lexington’s current snow plan here.
Albright said that before the first winter storm hit Lexington on January 5th, ranked roads (priority roads that ensure safety and traffic flow for the most traveled roads in Lexington), hills, and bridges were pretreated from January 2nd to January 4th. At 7:30am on January 5th, in the midst of the storm, rotating 12-hour shifts began for treatment and road plowing during the storm.
A full staff per shift includes 40 drivers, four supporting staff of salt loaders and mechanics, four supervisors, and three managers.
Treatment of roads included laying salt, salt brine, and beet heat (an organic mixture of beet and salt that treats ice and snow)
The city has 59 trucks of various types that it can deploy for treatment and plowing.
Albright emphasized that the City was aware the storms were coming and had a planned response which was in place before the snow and ice hit.
Crews faced several challenges due to the ice, which is difficult to plow compared to snow.
Once the ice hit, management shifted manpower from clearing roads to instead clearing fallen trees and limbs and re-treating roads. Low temperatures also resulted in mechanical issues for equipment. During the storms, three to six trucks had to be serviced by staff mechanics at any point.
Staff started to treat Fayette County Public School bus routes that were not on ranked roads before the second winter storm hit Lexington on January 10th.
The second round of snow meant that ranked roads had to be re-treated before staff returned to treat the bus routes.
Albright highlighted several immediate improvements to the snow plan that could be made in the future. These include:
Bringing in eight trucks and additional staff from Parks and Recreation which could prioritize clearing neighborhood streets.
The purchase of five new snow packages, totaling $75,000 in cost. These packages include snow plowing equipment that can fit onto existing trucks.
Pending approval by Council, the purchase of three additional tanker trucks for salt brine and beet heat treatment that is effective on packed snow and ice.
These will take eight months to purchase and will cost $660,000 in total.
Hiring emergency contractors for neighborhood roads.
Inclusion of Fayette County Public Schools in pre-storm meetings and communication with them throughout storms.
Some future considerations that Albright outlined were reviewing the ranking system for roads, revisiting the snowplow tracker which received many complaints for faulty data, and prioritizing clearing sidewalks.
Council also had several questions for Commissioner Albright. Some of those questions and answers are covered below.
Staffing and equipment
In response to questions about training for snow plow and treatment truck drivers, Commissioner Albright and Rob Allen, Director of the Division of Streets and Roads, answered that drivers go through a video course and then drive the routes, usually in rain or bad weather for practice, clocking up to 40 hours of training.
Vacant positions
On questions surrounding vacant positions, Albright answered that there is typically a 20% vacancy rate in Streets and Roads due to a lack of applications for drivers. Employees from other LFUCG Divisions often step in to drive snow plows and treatment trucks during emergencies. Allen said that the pay raise Council approved this year has improved vacancy rates and increased the number of applications received for the positions. Albright said that the City is looking to partner with more contractors for additional help.
Communication with Fayette County Public Schools
There was a lot of concern from Councilmembers regarding the clearance of FCPS bus routes. Albright said that communication with Fayette County Public Schools has improved a lot and that they were invited to give input on the snow plan. However, they struggled to compare snow routes due to the difference in route planning software and are working on having more detailed conversations regarding routes in the future.
Road ranking
Due to the vast amount of roads that were left uncleared after the winter storms, Councilmembers asked many questions about the road ranking system. Allen said that some Council Districts are experiencing rapid growth in Lexington and as new roads are added, some of them have not been included in the snow plan yet. Clearing more roads also has a budgetary impact and there are limitations due to staffing and equipment.
The ranking system also impacts which downed trees and limbs are prioritized. Ranked roads are addressed first, with full road blockages being a top priority.
Albright also clarified that only ranked roads are pretreated. In most snow storms, snow on neighborhood streets will have melted by the time ranked streets are finished being plowed and treated. But the ice in the most recent storm and prolonged cold temperatures kept ice and snow on the ground much longer than is typical.
Quality control on ranked roads was also highlighted by Councilmembers due to several instances of uncleared turn lanes. Albright responded that this could be addressed in the future.
Sidewalk clearance
Many Councilmembers expressed concern about clearing sidewalks. Albright said that there was a difference between property-managed sidewalks which were under the owner’s jurisdiction and those on the snow plan. There was no clear solution mentioned but Albright said that the topic would be something they need to review over the summer. Allen added that they heard concerns from residents who do not own a car and rely on having clear sidewalks in the winter.