City staff are gearing up for winter by seeking more money for road maintenance, implementing new AI technology and making use of an amended bylaw to better prepare for major storms, they announced Wednesday.
While last year’s winter was mild, the usual preparations are underway, said Vincent Sferrazza, the city’s director of transportation operations and maintenance.
“We have to be prepared for any eventuality,” he said.
Officials said the city’s proposed winter maintenance budget will increase from $140 million last winter to $160 million, if approved, for 2025.
More than $50 million remains from this year’s budget, said Barbara Gray, general manager of transportation services..
“We’ll be monitoring that closely and see what happens,” Gray said.
This comes after the city’s auditor general found Toronto went $26 million over budget on snow clearing in 2022, with a controversial contract process that may have increased costs by more than $24 million.
Sferrazza said the extra $20 million in this year’s proposed budget is because of a combination of factors, such as inflation, estimates on how many winter storms the city might face and increases to contracts and staff salaries.
In separate 2023 reports, the city’s auditor general raised questions about the quality of work done by two companies that were paid nearly $1.5 billion over a decade.
At Wednesday’s news conference, Gray said there will be escalating fines for contractors who don’t meet service levels for things like snow clearing and salting.
Sferrazza said the city also amended its bylaws so it’s able to declare a “major weather event” days before it begins. When those declarations are in place, Torontonians can’t park on roads designated as snow routes for 72 hours, or until the declaration ends, to allow for snow removal.
In the past, the city was only able to declare a major winter event when a certain amount of snow had already accumulated, said Sferrazza.
“Waiting until after the snow came down did not serve the general residents … nor did it help us in terms of removing the snow,” he said.
Spreading salt with help of AI
More than 1,400 clearing vehicles will be ready to deploy when snow hits the ground, Sferrazza said, and one or two vehicles will be equipped with AI sensors to help with salt spreading.
The technology, which Sferrazza says is already used in Europe and some U.S. states, can assess information like how much snow is falling, the temperature on the road and tire traction to determine what’s the right amount of salt to pour.
Officials said the city also installed two new weather stations, bringing its total to 10. Those stations provide data on where maintenance equipment is needed across the city.
City officials and staff unveiled details on Toronto’s winter road maintenance plan ahead of snow removal season. CBC’s Chris Glover has more on the plan.
City getting water mains, pipes ready
McKelvie said that with the spike in water-main breaks during cold snaps, the city is replacing 30 kilometres to 40 kilometres of water mains and repairing more than 100 kilometres of them each year.
“Replacing these aging pipes, and making emergency fixes when a water main breaks, causes traffic disruptions, but is critical work that must be done,” said McKelvie, who said that on average there are 700 water-main breaks in Toronto every year.
How you can get winter-ready
Gray recommended residents wrap foam around their water pipes to insulate them ahead of winter. She also recommended adding weather strips to doors and windows, and unscrewing outdoor hoses to avoid frozen pipes.
She encouraged residents to follow city bylaws that say ice and snow must be cleared from private properties within 24 hours of each snowfall, without pushing snow onto streets and sidewalks.
Those with a sidewalk adjacent to their properties will need to clear it themselves, unless more than two centimetres of snow falls, she said.