Winter maintenance is a matter of effective prioritizing: Workers, money, and time are not unlimited, and roads need to be cleared no matter what. A pilot project in Regina, Saskatchewan, tested different forms of wind barrier programs to see if they could be used to streamline the maintenance process.
The City of Regina services around 1,100 km of road network during winter and spends $8.5 to $9 million on winter maintenance per year. Clearing out wind-blown snow and ice is a major task for winter crews, especially in the newer subdivisions and outer city roads.
Neeraj Saroj, senior engineer with the city, said that using wind barrier programs to address this drifting problem might be an effective way of saving time and money. He presented this idea during the 2021 American Public Works Association (APWA) Snow and Ice Conference.
The city, Saroj said, had been using a snow fence program that included wooden fence posts and plastic fencing. This strategy had drawbacks; to start off, snow fences must be installed before the ground freezes, which means mid-winter adjustments are hard to make. Snow fences also require repairs and maintenance throughout the winter, post-season removal, and expensive postseason repairs, replacement, and inventory management.
The city had around 30,000 feet of snow fence. “It was quite a cumbersome and expensive winter activity,” Saroj noted—not as expensive as snowplowing or ice control, but still an opportunity to streamline costs.
As an alternative to snow fences, the city began experimenting with snow ridges—a wind barrier strategy that involves mounding snow into a series of ridges meant to block wind and force blown snow to drop to the ground before it reaches the road. A dedicated crew was put together to build and maintain the ridges, and the city conducted a pilot study to compare the effectiveness of snow ridges to snow fences.
Some advantages to snow ridges began to emerge. For one, they require no materials beyond the plow equipment used to push them into shape, nor are there removal or storage costs. They can be mounded higher if there are unexpectedly deep drifts, Saroj noted, whereas snow fences simply get overwhelmed at a certain point.
The 30,000 feet of snow ridges also ended up costing less than an equal amount of snow fence—about $7,794 for the whole season. If the city needed to return to the snow fence program, the initial materials cost would be a onetime expense of around $100,000, with an additional $75,000 per year for labor, materials replacements, and storage and inventory management.
There are some downsides to snow ridges, Saroj noted. They can’t be built until after the first snowstorm, for instance, and they require ongoing maintenance throughout the winter.
Neither snow ridges nor snow fences can serve as a complete replacement for mechanical snow removal, he added. Though more expensive, snowplowing is a necessity, especially in heavy wind and snow conditions.
Overall, the best winter maintenance strategy might be a combination of methods, Saroj said. In addition to plowing, snow fences, and snow ridges, he brought up living snow fences—strategic trees or shrubs meant to serve as a wind block—as well as the idea of outsourcing snow fence programs to contractors. Both have their pros and cons; living snow fences are low maintenance but require landowner commitment, and the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing snow fences depends on the contractor.
Moving forward, Saroj said, the city plans to do more research into snow ridges and expand the pilot study, if possible.
—Sophie Koch, MnLTAP freelancer
