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Richmond Hill staff, new trucks ready for white stuff
Works employees on standby as of today

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 7, 2014
By Kim Zarzour

You may not want to think about it, but it is coming: snow, ice, wind and all that wild winter weather.

While we may want to bury our collective head in the sand, the town is busy stocking up on sand, salt, shovels and snowplows - preparing for whatever the season brings.

And thanks to climate change, what this season brings may be worse, and less predictable, than ever before.

From today, Nov. 7 until April 3, Richmond Hill public works employees are on standby with 50 to 60 staff members ready at a moment’s notice to clear roads, trails, sidewalks, town lots and entryways.

This week, staff have been going through a series of winter training exercises, focusing on essentials such as circle safety checks of trucks, maintaining logs and preparing equipment, said Grant Taylor, director of public works.

They have also been distributing salt and sand to crosswalk locations and preparing the snow storage space at the municipal operations centre where, throughout the winter, public works trucks dump their scooped-up snow to be treated and melted into residue-filtering wetlands.

You may notice snowplows look a little different this winter.

The municipality has added two snow removal trucks to the existing agreement with Rafat General Contractor Inc., which means that the town will now have the use of 14 single-axle trucks for the next seven years.

Taylor said switching town trucks from tandem (long wheel base with two sets of wheels on the back) to single axle (shorter, with a single set of wheels) makes plows more maneuverable.

In the past, he said, the bigger trucks had difficulty in cul-de-sacs and wide bends on crescents.

The change should lead to lower operational costs, higher levels of efficiency and better driving capabilities for improved snow removal in Richmond Hill, he said.

The 10-truck $8,032,500 contract with Rafat General makes up the majority of the $10,269,000 snow removal truck budget, with the remaining $2,236,500 going to Fermar Paving Ltd. for four trucks.

This winter, the town will also switch from a salt-sand mix (which during this past extreme winter ended up being 100 per cent salt), to something called Thawrox - a product with additives that melt ice more efficiently, at lower temperatures.

Below -12 degrees, salt is not effective at melting ice, Taylor said.

Thawrox also has less “bounce and scatter,” he said, which means that while the material is more expensive, ultimately it should be more efficient and reduce costs.

Public works staff receive special weather reports three times a day throughout the winter. At the end of each day, “tailgate meetings” give staff a heads-up as to what to expect the following day and if they may be called in at 3 a.m. for an impending storm.

“The ice storm [last December] hit us hard. We can prepare and plan for emergency response, but at the end of the day, it’s still stressful and has an impact on staff,” he said. “There’s lots of challenges with back-to-back storms.”

In a recent issue of Municipal World magazine, Nicola Crawhall, of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, warned municipalities must prepare for more frequent and erratic weather events.

“While the trend is towards shorter and wetter winters, this year’s polar vortex showed just how unpredictable and erratic weather is becoming, even during winter months.

“Warmer weather followed by fast freezes are resulting in more frequent ice storms...Fast spring snow melts combined with precipitation events causing flooding are also becoming more common.”

Spokesperson Carol Moore said the Town of Richmond Hill recognizes the problem and has a number of initiatives in place to help mitigate potential risks.

In addition to incorporating new practices to make winter maintenance more efficient, town employees also update emergency management procedures and participate in training exercises to improve readiness, she said.

There are stormwater management initiatives to improve flood control and storm pond quality, ongoing work to improve the health of the tree canopy and each year, the town works with residents to plant approximately 10,000 new trees to help sustain urban forests.

In addition to adapting to climate change, there are efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build active transportation networks and encourage public transit, she said.

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