New online tool allows city to track snow removal

Photo: City of Kelowna

An online tool developed by the City of Kelowna could eventually allow residents to see where snow removal is occurring in real time.

The new snow removal dashboard is being utilized by the city's public works department to determine their adherence to pre-determined service levels.

Infrastructure operations manager Geert Bos told city council Monday the city is sectioned into 19 maintenance areas and four priority zones.

"P1 routes are to be cleared within eight hours of a snow event, p2 within 12 hours and P3 with 48 hours," said Bos, who added the date and time of a snow event is determined when it ends, not when it starts.

With the dashboard, Bos says staff will be able to demonstrate how many of these routes were visited during the allotted timeline.

When asked by Mayor Tom Dyas about public access to the dashboard to determine where the snow plows are, Bos said that particular application is on their wish list, saying "we're not quite there yet.

"The dashboard still requires review by a person with intense knowledge of the event that is happening...in the future, it can be fine-tuned for more automation."

With more snow expected this week, Bos says the city is about to blow through it's 2022 snow removal budget.

He told council the city has spent nearly $2 million of its $2.185 million snow clearing budget for 2022.

He adds the city historically has gone over budget by about $200,000.

During those years when the city does not spend it's entire budget, the left over money is returned to the road clearing reserve fund.