The City of Windsor Winter Control Operation

1. The City of Windsor Winter Control Operation

2. The City of Windsor (your Canadian neighbor to the south) has 2344 lane kilometers (or 1457 miles).

3. In 1982, decisions had to be made related to: • Service Delivery • Aging Equipment • Aging Workforce

4. WORKFORCE 1983 - 2008

5. In 2004, the City of Windsor was faced with the present winter control contract up for re-tender for the 2005 winter season.

6. Concurrently, Environment Canada released a “Code of Practice for Environmental Management of Road Salts”.

7. Below you will see some of the trials The City of Windsor experimented with: • GPS/AVL • Prewetting of Salt • Anti Icing of Roads • Salt Additives • Improved Spreader Controls • Revising Salt Routes The following is the outcome of the above-mentioned trials.

8. In 2005, the City of Windsor purchased Grey Island GPS/AVL for all salt trucks. The reason for this was: • liability • damage claims • respond to citizen complaints

10. The City of Windsor looked into prewetting of salt as a way to reduce salt usage, salt loss (bounce/roll) and faster results.

12. A study in British Columbia revealed that the majority of accidents occurred at the beginning of storm events and that anti-icing prior to the storm could reduce the bond of snow to pavement thus reducing accidents and decreasing the amount of salt required. Note this is only effective when storm starts as snow – not rain or freezing rain.

13. The City also looked into the addition of beet juice into salt, however temperatures in our area do not warrant the additional cost of this additive.

14. In 2004, the City of Windsor was looking at salt spreaders that could: • Reduce salt usage • Prewet salt • Provide multi-lane salting; and • Advance the usage of GPS/AVL.

15. In late 2004 the City was researching the advantages of the European spreaders and purchased an EPOKE spreader. Trials with EPOKE proved successful and in late 2005 the City retendered the Winter Control Contract.

16. The requirements for submitting bids consisted of the salter/spreader control unit being capable of the following: Variable salt rates Must be compatiable with Grey Island GPS/AVL. Must be capable of GPS/Satellite controlled salting. Direct and width of salt distributed by symmetric patterns and adjustable at the driver’s discretion. Schmidt

17. EPOKE

18. There were only two (2) salt manufacturers that were able to meet tender requirements: EPOKE & SCHMIDT

19. A consultant was hired to review the present salt routes.

20. Consultant Recommendations: • For All Snow Events • During a snow event the deployment of City and Contracted snow vehicles will be as follows: • All vehicles will be dedicated to one of the following types of routes: • Expressways • Arterial • Collector

22. Consultant Recommendations: • Large Snow Event • All trucks deployed to their specific routes. • Once snow in excess of 3” all trucks on collector routes are tandemed up with trucks on expressway and arterial routes. • Once arterial routes are cleared, trucks are redeployed to collector streets.

23. CHANGESSINCE TENDER AWARD • Automation of Anti-Icing • All bridge anti-icing routes are totally automated driver selects the route in the controller . Voice activated GPS guides driver through route and truck automatically brines at preset locations. 2. Automation of Salt Routes Presently working towards the automation of certain salt routes. Presently concentrating on certain arterial routes with multi lane and turning lane variations. Currently 4 routes completed – looking to expand in 2008/09 season.

24. 3. Reducing Travel Distances Presently during salting operation, roads that may have requried one pass for each lane now only require one pass therefore reduced fuel costs and reduced salt. • 4. Advanced GPS/AVL • Can monitor LIVE all spreader functions: • Application Rates • Brine Rate • Speader Width (how far left/how far right) • Plow Up/Plow Down • Summary Reports when doing Residentials • KMS Travelled • KMs Salted • Salt Used

25. QUESTIONS