WORK SESSION AGENDA COMMITTEE-OF-THE-WHOLE APRIL 1, 2019 CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE COUNCIL MEETING 1. Snow Removal Procedures Steven Lang 2. 2020 Budget Streets & Highways Tom Dankert 3. Honorary Council Member Comments 4. Administrative Report 5. Open Discussion
Page 1 of 4 City of Austin 500 Fourth Avenue N.E. Austin, Minnesota 55912-3773 Steven J. Lang, P.E. City Engr./Public Works Dir. 507-437-9949 Fax 507-437-7101 slang@ci.austin.mn.us Memorandum To: Mayor & Council From: Steven J. Lang, P.E. Date: March 28 th, 2019 Subject: Snow Removal Procedures Following a long winter of record snowfall, we have had multiple internal staff discussions about our snow removal procedures and snow ordinance. I have also received questions from Council and the public. It is our policy that during a snow event that we accomplish the following priorities: 1) Plow every street on a minimum of one side within 12 hours of the end of the snow event. 2) Windrow and haul snow away from the core downtown area. 3) Continuous sand and salt operation as required during the snow event. 4) Plow all City owned parking lots within 24 hours of the end of the event. 5) Clean all City owned sidewalks within 24 hours of the end of the event. 6) Clean all bridge deck sidewalks within 3 working days of the snow event. 7) Remove snow from parking lanes of mains and secondary roadways to widen them for parking. To achieve the policy above we will use the following equipment and personnel to tackle the event: Snow Plowing Downtown Cleanup 11 Snow Plows 2 Blowers 1 Alley Truck 6 Haul Trucks 1 Loader 2 Loaders 1 Supervisor 2 Motor Graders 1 Mechanic 1 Supervisor 1 Mechanic 15 Staff 14 Staff We currently have 18 employees in our street department, including supervisors, operators, chauffeurs and mechanics. To cover the additional 11 pieces of equipment, we utilized staff from the Sewer, WWTP and Park & Rec Departments. When we are short on staff we will also utilize the Sign Shop position to plow alleys and we have one
Page 2 of 4 employee in Engineering that has a CDL to drive a haul truck. During the most recent snow event when we received 12 + we hired 4 contractor trucks to assist with hauling snow. 4 Snow Event Snow Plowing: We will typically start at 4:00am with our primary focus to clear our main and secondary roadways. Trucks will pair up in groups of 2 to plow these roadways curb to curb. This will typically take 3-4 hours. They will then break out individually into their designated plow area. We have 10 plow truck areas and 1 downtown/floater route. 1 loader will work to clear cul-de-sacs and load trucks with salt/sand. The alley truck will work to clear snow from all residential alleys. It will typically take about 6-8 hours to plow curb to curb in the residential area. In total a plow driver will have a 9-12 hour day clearing snow. Downtown Cleanup: We will typically start at 2:00am with our primary focus to clear our downtown core area. 2 motor graders will windrow the snow to the center of the roadway. It will then be blown into the haul trucks with a loader/blower combination. Trucks will then haul snow to either the Marcussen or 3 rd Avenue dump site where the snow will be blown into a large pile with our second loader/blower combination. We will also have 2 loaders clearing downtown alleys and City owned parking lots. It will typically take 10-12 hours to complete the downtown cleanup. The second day after the event, plow trucks will be back out clearing mains and secondary roadways. The will then go into their residential areas to cleanup intersections, clear snowbirds and salt/sand intersections. The downtown crew will often times have to complete a second smaller downtown cleanup. They will then load out snow from parking lots and cul-de-sacs. This event will cost the City about $25,000 in wages, equipment, fuel and materials. We typically have 10 such events during a typical winter. Snow Emergency A snow emergency is handled much the same way as the 4 Snow Event with just a couple exceptions. In residential areas we institute alternate side or odd/even parking. Vehicles are required to park with the calendar, meaning that on an even day they park on the side of the road with even numbered houses and then alternate on the odd calendar day. The switch over for parking occurs at 8:00am. Snow plows will then split the road in the center, plowing the legal side all the way to the curb and only clearing the driving lane on the parking side. Plowing the driving lane on the legal parking side will result in a windrow along legally parked cars. There are 2 alternatives to avoid this: o Don t plow the driving lane on the legal parking side, which will create a great deal of compaction and could create safety issues by only having one driving lane plowed. o Plow the legal half and the driving lane all to one side. This will result in 2/3rds of the road being plowed to one side. This will result in a large number of complaints from residents saying that their driveways got plowed in worse than the opposite side. That will all be a random factor based on when the snow emergency starts whether on an odd or even day.
Page 3 of 4 A snow emergency will extend residential plowing to 3 days. We plow the legal side the first day of the event. The second day vehicles switch over at 8:00am and we plow the remainder of the street and parking lane. On the third day of the event vehicles switch over at 8:00am and we plow or cleanup the original side along with intersections and snowbirds. 2018-19 4 2008-09 0 1998-99 3 2017-18 1 2007-08 0 1997-98 0 2016-17 1 2006-07 1 1996-97 3 2015-16 0 2005-06 0 1995-96 2 2014-15 0 2004-05 2 1994-95 1 2013-14 0 2003-04 0 1993-94 1 2012-13 0 2002-03 0 1992-93 2 2011-12 0 2001-02 0 2010-11 0 2000-01 4 2009-10 0 1999-00 1 This year we received multiple complaints related to the narrow streets and residents complained that they were caused because we were not calling snow emergencies. Ultimately the narrow streets were caused because of the volume of snow on the boulevards. With the boulevard snow 3-5 feet tall, there was no other option but to leave the snow in the curb line. As we continued to get more and more snow we had to keep moving farther away from the curb line as it continued to fill up. Finally resulting in the narrow roadways we were seeing in February and March. In addition to roadway snow removal we also have an ordinance regarding sidewalk snow removal. It is a complaint based approach, where we receive a report from the public, we inspection the location of the complaint, hire a contract to clear the sidewalk and then assess the costs to the property owner at $0.65 per foot. This is administered by our zoning department and below is a list of the number of sidewalks we have cleared in recent years: 2018-19 71 2013-14 58 2017-18 22 2012-13 28 2016-17 21 2011-12 6 2015-16 26 2010-11 123 2014-15 24 2009-10 57 If you have any questions about any of the information provided, please let me know.
Page 4 of 4
Snow Emergency Guidelines Snow emergency routes are mainly located in the midtown business district, but also extend to areas including the Sterling Shopping Center, the Austin Medical Center and the East Side Business District. In the event that a snow emergency is called, there is no parking on streets in those areas between 1:00 and 8:00 am while crews clear the street. Parking is also restricted in downtown parking lots during this same period. The follow 2 parking lots have been designated for safe parking during a snow emergency: 1) Municipal Pool Lot (South 1 2) 2) Brick Furnature Lot Snow Emergency Guidelines In areas not designated as a snow emergency route, street parking follows the calander. Meaning that if it is an odd day on the calander, park on the odd side of the street and if it is an even day, park on the even side. Snow emergencies are typically called when about 4 inches of snow falls. A snow emergency will last 72 hours, unless cancelled early by City Officials.
NOTICE Ice and Snow on Public Sidewalk Ice and Snow a Nuisance. All snow and ice remaining upon public sidewalks is hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance and shall be abated by the owner or tenant of the abutting private property within twelve (12) hours after such snow or ice has ceased to be deposited. City to Remove Snow and Ice. The City may cause to be removed from all public sidewalks, beginning twenty-four (24) hours after snow or ice has ceased to fall, all snow and ice which may be discovered thereon, and it shall keep a record of the cost of such removal and the private property adjacent to which such accumulations were found and removed. Cost of Removal to be Assessed. The City Administrator shall, upon direction of the Council and on receipt of the information provided for in the preceding Subdivision extend the cost of such removal of snow or ice as a special assessment against the lots or parcels of ground abutting on walks which were cleared, and such special assessments shall at the time of certifying taxes to the County Auditor be certified for collection as other special assessments are certified and collected. Placing Snow or Ice in Public Street or On Other City Property It is a misdemeanor for any person, not acting under a specific contract with the City, to remove snow from private property or alleys and place the same on a public street in such quantity, or in such manner, as to cause a hazard to travel without adequate arrangements for the immediate removal thereof; and it is also a misdemeanor for any person not acting under a contract with City to dump snow on other City property.