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Road Challenges Of The 'New' PG Winter

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Wednesday, February 07, 2007 09:13 AM

Prince George roads have it all this winter - snow, ice and water

It’s warm, it’s cold, it’s freezing, it’s raining...

The highs, lows, and everything-in-between that we’ve experienced weather-wise in Prince George this winter make it difficult when you’re tasked with keeping city streets safe.

Director of Development Services, Bob Radloff, says,  "Weather extremes do create a lot of challenges.  It’s not untypical, though, of what we’ve experienced in the last three or four years."

Radloff says, "Typically, when we have a window of opportunity to melt, we are using a more high-strength brine solution that does get us satisfactory melt of the snow and the ice build-up."

But he says the freeze-thaw cycles Prince George has been experiencing present challenges to the plan, pointing out that the temperature on Monday was plus-3, but was expected to drop considerably by today.  

Environment Canada forecasts a high of minus-5, with the overnight low to minus-8.


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Posted on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 09:13 AM in News by Michelle Cyr-Whiting

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Comments

Comment Posted by: Harbinger on February 7 2007 9:40 PM
The headline read " city crews have seen it all this winter". I beg to differ. Just check out some of our crappy roads and streets we have. A misleading intro if I ever read one.
Comment Posted by: Chadermando on February 7 2007 10:13 PM
The key to road brine is it has to be applied just prior to the snow or freezing rain event in order to work properly. This means knowing in advance when the event will take place and pre-positioning the crews to be on top of the situation as it develops.

In PG the road crews are usually late out of the gates therefore their road brine would not work effectively.

Road brine holds the heat from the pavement and the heat produced by traffic to lower the freezing point of road moisture. Its the liquid friction that makes it effective. If it is put onto an already frozen road it takes a lot more to get it to change the freezing point of the road ice. In the case of an already frozen road the only cost effective option is the traditional road salt.

The manager of operations has to know when to apply what solution for optimal performance and cost effectiveness. Simply dumping road salt and road brine on the roads with no strategy is not effective and a waste of resources.
Comment Posted by: Harbinger on February 8 2007 12:37 AM
To coin a famous quote from the Roads Department of City Hall a few years ago, "We will little mother nature take care of that".
Comment Posted by: Harbinger on February 8 2007 12:40 AM
To coin a famous quote from the Roads Department of City Hall a few years ago, "We will let mother nature take care of that". Faulty keyboard.