Regina working to shave down road ruts on residential roads

Ice ruts on residential roads and alleys have become a painin Regina after a series of freeze-thaw weather conditions.

The city started smoothing streets last Saturday and will be shaving the rough surfaces and deep ruts along the driving lanes of residential roads and alleys for the next few weeks, according to Tyler Bien, manager of roadway seasonal operations with the City of Regina.

"We actually perform ice shaving on a pretty routine basis throughout the years," he said.

"Normallywe don't experience the severe increase in temperature in February, and it's usually not followed by a drastic drop in temperature that causes the real hard freezing of those ruts."

The ice shaving program is built into the city's budget.

Crews will only be operating during daytime hours, between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. The city anticipates ice shaving to be completed in around two weeks, according to Bien.

"Should we receive more snow as forecasted, crews will be reassigned to keep major and emergency routes roads drivable," said the city in a news release.

The assignment of crews each day depends on garbage and recycling collection as well ashow much was completed the day before, said Bien.

If a street is too narrow for the equipment, the city will place no parking signs with a scheduled day in the area.

On all other roads, people don't need to move their vehicles, according to the city, but off-street parking is encouraged.

Ice won't be removed

However, the smoothing of the streets doesn't include the removal of the ice from the roads.

"Ice will be left behind by the equipment," said Bien.

"It will be pushed up against existing snow ridges or it will be placed along the curb."

The city will come and remove a snow ridge only if it starts to impede traffic on a road,he said.

Regina is working on snow removal right now in areas that have experienced more snow accumulation, according to Bien.

However, the focus is mostly on streets in the categories one to three, including for example major arterial roads such as Albert Street, minor arterial roads such as Elphinstone Streetand roads with school unloading zones.

"On some residential streets where they border open areas or they have experienced an abnormal amount of snow on those streets, and those ridges have gone to a place where they are severely impacting the travel on that road, they will be addressed through the snow removal program," said Bien.

If that is not the case, the ridges will stay on the residential roads until they melt, he said.

"I do understand that there is some issues with parking in those areas," said Bien.

"You can clear yourself a spot or park as close to the ridge as possible while ensuring that you're not parking in the travel lane of the road."

Saskatoon expects to complete all neighbourhoods by Wednesday

As of Monday, the City of Saskatoon has completed more than 60 per cent of rut shaving on residential streets, it said in a news release.

Crews are expected to complete their work in all neighbourhoods by Wednesday.

Workers will start rut shaving industrial areas and severe ruts in back lanes this week, while a clean-up team will address snow ridges that are blocking driveway access within a few days of rut shaving, according to the city.