Halifax announces changes to snow-clearing plan

Halifax is making changes to its snow-clearing program that aimto improve service and accountability, following last winter's woesthat saw ice-clogged streets and thousands of complaints from residents.

The city announced the move in a news release Friday.The changes come after tworeviews in the last four months of the city's snow-clearing efforts.

Last winter,the municipality's winter operations budget went $10 million beyond its $20.5-million envelopeand its311helplinewas inundated with 23,000 calls and complaints.

In August, Halifax council criticized the firstreview, calling it"incomplete."Council voted during the same meetingfor a second report to be completed, which wassubmittedby the chair of the accessibility advisory committee on Sept. 24.

In Friday's release, the city says by "incorporating lessons learned" changes to the operations planwill "deliver better results."City spokesperson Jennifer Stairs says this year's winter operations budget is around $22 million.

Here's what's changed:

Bigger areas will be covered by fixed-cost operators

Though there are still three contractors handling street clearing this winter, Halifax says they will cover a larger territory, while city snow-clearing staff will focus on smaller zones.

In particular, those contractors will focus on areas that have limited space for snow storage so sidewalks won't beblocked, the city says.

It says having fixed-cost operators clear larger zones will control spending and improve co-ordination between street and sidewalk operators.

Stairs said the contractors have also purchased more equipment and trained more staff.

Smaller areas will be covered by the same number of city plows

By enlarging zones cleared by contractors, the city says its staff will be able to clear smaller areas more quickly.

Those core areas being maintained bycity employees are downtown Halifax and Dartmouth, Clayton Park and surrounding areas, andBurnside Industrial Park.

The person in charge of this all this is acting winter operations supervisor TrevorHarvie,who was promoted to the position last month.

More equipment and new technology

The city says it's taken steps to arrange extra equipment including graders, machinery and backhoes to remain on retainer.

In addition, city vehicles will be tracked using GPS technology.

"Season vehicle tracking technology will be used on all municipal equipment to provide real-time information for staff," the statement says. It will allow supervisors to see what equipment is closest to service calls as they come in.

Parking andstaff

As it has been since 2012, 311 will be available for locals to call or email.

But the city says more supervisors will be monitoring snow-clearing efforts.

As for parking, the city aims to increase vehicle ticketing and towingduring winter parking bans especially in areas that get clogged easily such as bus routes and streets around hospitals and schools.

Environment Canada's seasonal forecast predictions for the periods of November 2015to January 2016 state that Nova Scotia is likely to have a normal levels of precipitation.