I have read some posts from people complaining about the winter maintance of roads in New Brunswick. I have been posting on Facebook weather reports for a period of time. The forcecasts have been longer and more accurate, new methods of disseminating weather information and a host of new warnings have greatly improved our ability to predict and prepare for winter weather. No government will ever be able to eliminate fully the inconvenience winter throws our way. Lets not forget that the ability to survive winter has always been one of the defining characteristics of being a New Brunswicker. Below is the Winter Maintenance Changes as of January 2014 · DTI is transforming to a performance-based organization. We are learning to be more efficient and productive, while identifying savings to reduce our costs. · We have reviewed the winter maintenance program. This is in accordance with the operational reviews we have already undertaken in the summer maintenance program, at head office, and at the Vehicle Management Agency. · Safety will continue to be paramount as we move forward changes to the winter maintenance program. · The winter maintenance budget for 2013-2014 is $57.5 million (down $2.9 million from last year), but we may spend more depending on the winter conditions. · Every depot will remain open this winter as in the past. We still have a sufficient number of staff and plows working to take care of our highways. There continues to be more operators than plows (520 operators, 463 plows). · Winter maintenance policies are being followed for level of service. We ordered the same amount of salt and sand as last year. We are applying salt and sand when and where it is needed according to our policies. Due to the number and intensity of the storms we’ve had, our salt and sand consumption is up this year. So far this season, salt is up 24 per cent and sand consumption is up 64 per cent over the previous three-year average. · There are no layoffs as a result of the review. Any staff reductions are being carried out through attrition. · There is a reduction in total operators from 590 to 520. · The total number of winter supervisors has gone from 88 to 70. · There is a reduction of approximately 26 winter plow assets on regular plow routes (489 to 463). · The majority of these 26 assets is still available as spares and will be used on an “as needed” basis during storms. Mostly graders were removed from regular plow routes and are still available as needed. · Some supervisors have larger areas this winter. · We did an analysis of our plow routes using GPS technology in our plow trucks. The analysis indicated we could meet our service level with fewer assets by redistributing some of our routes. · Absenteeism in the winter maintenance program is about 4 per cent, while the number of spare drivers is 12 per cent. · During the extreme weather event on January 11, our crews worked around the clock to have roads open within 24 hours. A total of 15,373 tons of sand and 5,063 tons of salt were spread during this storm
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 15:06:02 +0000
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