Manhattan city commissioners discussed plans to replace a road salt storage facility and build two smaller sites to improve snow removal efficiency during a work session Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Public works director Brian Johnson said the city\u2019s salt storage facility on Denison Avenue is fully deconstructed after a June storm caused damage to the structure. This has forced the city government to keep all its salt in the joint maintenance facility (JMF).<\/p>\n
The move has increased travel time for snowplows and other vehicles that need to reload salt during winter weather. Johnson said public works will only have that one salt storage site to work with this winter season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not only the cost of driving back and forth,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s lost opportunity cost of now I\u2019ve taken a plow out of service for an hour as it goes over to the JMF, loads and goes back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has set aside $500,000 in its proposed 2027 capital improvement plan to build two smaller salt storage facilities, each about half the size of the existing Denison facility.<\/p>\n
Potential locations include Evergy property near Eisenhower School, Kansas State University property near Marlatt or College avenues, and property near West Anderson Avenue.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Larry Fox questioned whether the city should buy property when existing city-owned land might accommodate the facilities.<\/p>\n
Johnson said some city-owned sites could present access challenges or have greater redevelopment value. The city also must consider nearby homes, traffic and the appearance of the structures compared to the surrounding area. Snow removal operations can run around the clock, meaning trucks loading salt overnight could disturb nearby residents.<\/p>\n
Johnson said staff would return with a comparison of potential sites, including costs and other considerations.<\/p>\n
Johnson also reviewed Manhattan\u2019s joint road salt purchasing agreement with Fort Riley, which began in 2015 after officials discovered the installation was paying substantially more for salt despite buying from the same supplier.<\/p>\n
Under the agreement, the city solicits bids based on the combined amount needed by both entities. Salt is delivered directly to each location, and Manhattan charges Fort Riley a 3% administrative fee.<\/p>\n
The city signed a 10-year extension and is in about the third or fourth year of the agreement, Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Winter operations<\/p>\n
In addition to limitations regarding salt storage, Johnson said public works is down to around two-thirds its typical crew size for winter weather cleanup this season.<\/p>\n
Dan Tyson, the city\u2019s street, fleet and stormwater superintendent, outlined how crews prepare for and respond to snow and ice.<\/p>\n
Street, stormwater and fleet employees lead the work, with assistance from utilities and traffic staff as needed.<\/p>\n
Crews use trucks, loaders, snowblowers and pretreatment vehicles. The city applies a mixture of about 75% salt brine and 25% calcium chloride to help lower the freezing point while reducing costs. Pretreatment depends on weather conditions, and crews generally avoid applying material more than 24 hours before a storm.<\/p>\n
Crews treat roads before a storm when conditions allow, plow while snow is falling and apply a final treatment afterward.<\/p>\n
In Aggieville and downtown, crews remove accumulated snow rather than simply pushing it to the sides of streets when snowfall exceeds 4 inches. A snowblower and trucks haul the snow to a parking lot.<\/p>\n
The city will continue its method introduced last winter of using door hangers to alert residents with a QR code directing them to the claims office if snow removal work damages their yards or mailboxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan city commissioners discussed plans to replace a road salt storage facility and build two smaller sites to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[137438,75,84,83,9,24,63,37998,33892,8555],"class_list":["post-373179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-brian-johnson","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-road-salt","tag-salt","tag-snow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}