The City of Renton has 318 centerline miles and 753 lane miles of streets and rights of way (2021). The Street Maintenance Division is responsible for sweeping, cleaning, and repairing city streets, mowing right-of-ways, repairing city sidewalks, overseeing street overlay projects, and preparing and responding to emergencies such as snow and ice winter events flooding and wind events.
The city has nine sanders, 11 trucks with plows, and three anti-icer applicator trucks. All trucks are loaded and tested annually in October. Any issues or repairs are then completed by the operators and our fleet maintenance mechanics.
The three anti-icing applicator trucks carry 150, 300, 1,600 gallons. The 1,600-gallon truck is specifically for multi-lane main arterials, and the smaller trucks are for secondaries and neighborhoods.
In storage tanks, the city has 8,000 gallons of liquid anti-icer, Freezgard CI Plus (Magnesium Chloride with corrosion inhibitor). The city's vendor is ready if more is needed during a storm event.
Approximately 400 ton of road salt is on hand and over 1,500 ton of sand, and 400 ton of a 50/50 sand/salt mix.
The division has 15 street maintenance workers, a night sweeper (emergency responder) operator, and two solid waste workers. Formal training sessions are held annually and cover winter operations anti-icing/plowing procedures.
All plow drivers study their route map books and drive their routes to be familiar with what they look like without snow. They look for potential road hazards or obstructions. Renton's streets look completely different when covered in snow. This route precheck helps prevent plow and truck damage when the snow fight begins. The city is divided into five regions, and trucks are distributed as evenly as possible, based on hills, major arterials, priority locations, and routes.
Priority snow routes: main streets and arterials, secondary arterials and collectors, bridges, schools, hospitals, fire stations, and bus routes.
Many of these major routes have been pre-treated with anti-icer when we see an event in the forecast. Pre-treating helps keep ice and snow from bonding to the pavement and allows quicker removal through plowing.