Public Works hits breaking point

BY NADINE ARMSTRONG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

After a succession of relatively mild Decembers, winter 2007 brought with it a return to frigid temperatures and conditions that have pressed Public Works staff into overtime.

“It has been a rough December,” said Town of Windsor Public Works Director Don Beatty. He says it has been difficult to calculate the number of storm-related situations the area has faced over the past month as they tend to run into each another, but he estimates there have been at least five or six storms that crews have had to deal with recently.

However, the Town’s snow removal budget is holding up. “We've used more of the budget than we typically do for this time of year,” Beatty said. But because the budget is averaged out over a year, he said there’s no telling yet what kind of dent the month of December will make.

“So far it's not a huge problem, but it could be if the weather continues the way it has. We're hoping for a stretch of mild weather.”

However, the series of storms has complicated an issue Public Works is battling already. If clearing the streets of snow and ice isn't enough, Beatty said they’ve had to repair more than a dozen water main breaks in the span of a month.

“The period just before Christmas was very stressful,” he said. “The crews are taxed to the limit at this point.”

Fifteenth break in nine days

Under normal circumstances there are eight staff and two supervisors in the department. Add Christmas vacations to the mix and staff is reduced to only six outside workers. Even so, Beatty says they rarely contract out additional resources.

“We may hire a tandem truck if we need tom but we rely heavily on our own staff.” He said as much as possible is taken care of 'in-house'.

Last week crews were busy digging on Wentworth Rd hoping to find the source of the breakages they've been chasing for weeks. Additional flaggers had to be hired and Ernie Smith's Excavating was also onsite to assist.

Staff person Barry Boyd said it was the 15th break in nine days. He attributes the persistent problem to the swift drop in temperatures and hundred-year-old pipes. Beyond that, “I just don't know. It has been a battle.”

“We've got a small crew. They are certainly working a lot of hours and folks are getting tired,” said Town CAO Louis Couthinho. He said the water main breaks have compounded the seasonal stress on Public Works.

“We've had about dozen water main breaks on top of what they already have to deal with. I'm not sure why the breaks are happening right now, but staff is working quite a bit.”

Beatty said that although there’s not a great deal of frost in the ground, there has been an unusual amount of movement that could cause pipes to break.

“The ground was saturated and then came the freezing temperatures,” he said. However, Beatty agrees that the age of the lines is a contributing factor. “Regardless of how much you replace lines, there are always old parts in any system that are going to need repair. It’s just a matter of finding them.”

Even with the unprecedented number of breaks, Beatty said there has been very little disruption to households and businesses. “It generally takes only four or five hours for a repair,” he said, but in one location, temporary lines were installed over Christmas.