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March 2020 Monthly Report

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March 2020 Monthly Report TO: MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER FROM: MARK MALONEY, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR DATE: MARCH 12, 2020 SUBJ: PUBLIC WORKS MONTHLY REPORT LOAD RESTRICTIONS ON CITY STREETS Seasonal Load Restrictions (Load Limits) have been used in Minnesota since 1937. They are used as part of a broader roadway preservation strategy. In climate regions like ours that see multiple freeze/thaw cycles, the materials under the pavement become saturated, causing soft conditions early in the season. Roadways are engineered to different standards depending on daily usage or zoning of an area that would expect to see more traffic of heavy vehicles. Most of the mileage of Shoreview streets is residential, designed for a loading of 7 tons per axle under normal conditions. During the period of load limits, most are posted down to a limit of 5 tons per axle (pictured). Cities and Counties in Minnesota rely on Mn/DOT for direction on the load limit posting periods. Mn/DOT uses a forecast model that takes current and forecasted temperatures into account. This is done to ensure the most beneficial timing of putting the road restrictions in place. Minnesota is broken up into six frost zones; Shoreview falls into the Metro region and this year, the load restrictions were put into place at 12:01 on Friday, March 6. Once the road restrictions have been set, they may be held in place for up to 40 days. Current law requires State, County, City and Townships within each frost zone to place and remove the restrictions on the same day. Shoreview maintains approximately 110 miles of roads with about 90 miles of those being impacted by seasonal load limits. The day prior to the restrictions being put in place, city staff installs about 220 signs around the city. Once the signs are in place, enforcement activities begin. Ramsey County and the State Patrol have officers who are trained to monitor and enforce the load restrictions in key corridors. If city staff sees a heavy vehicle in a restricted area, we can contact Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office to request the vehicle be checked. While Shoreview does not provide permits for exceptions to load limits, a number of general contractors, emergency, garbage, recycle and utility vehicles are exempt. Because of the potential damage to the roadways when they’re vulnerable to heavy loads this time of year, Shoreview has historically taken a very firm and consistent approach to posting and enforcing load limits. CITY OF SHOREVIEW PUBLIC WORKS REPORT Page 2 of 5 ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES Environmental Quality Committee (EQC) The EQC recently had their first meeting as a newly expanded committee. All but one of the 11 EQC members was present at the February meeting. The group is very diverse in their technical backgrounds and interests and got along well. At the meeting, members discussed recruiting volunteers for the 2020 Slice of Shoreview organics effort. The National Honor Society at MVHS and the GreenCorps were some ideas brought up by members and staff. The EQC 2020 Speaker Series began in February with Stacy Boots Camp from the Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) speaking on the benefits of energy efficiency in your home and programs offered to residents by CEE. Stacy’s talk was unfortunately only attended by about 10 people in person but there were great questions and it was a very valuable presentation. Those who listen to Stacy’s talk, either in person or online, are eligible for 30% off of the cost of a home energy audit this year! The March speaker will be Melissa King from the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR). Melissa will speak on BWSR’s new Lawns to Legumes program that is offering financial assistance to residents across the state who plant pollinator friendly plants on their properties. This event will occur on Wednesday, March 18 at 7pm in council chambers. The April speaker will be from Hamline University, speaking on the Adopt-a-Drain program and stormwater management on April 15, and the May speaker will discuss solar installations at the city and resources for residents interested in installing solar on their own homes on May 20. Forestry The University of Minnesota is working with the city’s new tree inventory to determine the areas of highest canopy cover over roadways in the city. They’re interested in this data because they’re looking into a possible credit system for water quality that would take street sweeping into account. In addition to canopy cover, researchers are also looking at species breakdown by street to determine when the best times to sweep each street would be (different species drop their leaves at different times) and what areas need more attention (some species’ leaves take longer to break down than others). Staff gave University of Minnesota professionals access to the public portion of the tree inventory for this work. The city is in the process of hiring the two forestry interns for 2020. These positions will help with emerald ash borer (EAB) tree injections this summer. The posting closed on March 3 and over 20 applications were received! That’s more than at any point in the past. Interviews will be held March 16th. The city treats approximately 400 ash trees each year against the EAB and this internship is a great opportunity to gain experience with both trees and the public. Recycling Staff is currently trying to find an alternative for Simple Recycling in the city. Simple Recycling came to Shoreview in mid-2017 with a proposal to collect textiles from resident’s curbside for free for five years. In the fall of 2019, Simple cancelled their contract with the city citing lack of material. That contract termination is effective this week. Staff reached CITY OF SHOREVIEW PUBLIC WORKS REPORT Page 3 of 5 out to Eureka Recycling last fall for a proposal to collect textiles curbside. They do this service in Roseville and St Paul already. Eureka came back in March and stated that, based on Simple Recycling’s reported numbers in the city, they wouldn’t have the capacity to collect everything set out by Shoreview’s residents each week. They asked staff for information on the number of stops and Simple provided those as well. Eureka is currently re-evaluating if curbside collection is feasible for Shoreview. As textiles collection is a requirement of the county’s SCORE grant, the city will need to have some option available for residents. If curbside collection is deemed to not be possible, staff will set up a collection for textiles at the fall cleanup day event in October. Staff is currently planning for the spring 2020 Cleanup Day. The event will take place on Saturday, May 16 at McCullough Park in Shoreview. This year’s event will be open to Shoreview residents only and some limits have been placed on materials (limit 4 tires and 2 mattresses/box springs). Outreach is being developed, as is a map of the new site location. Staff is considering a separate mailer to all residents about the new cleanup day changes for 2020. MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES In the last month we had 1 full crew plowing event that included trail clean-up. Vehicles and equipment were cleaned and inspected and prepared for the next event. There were two water main breaks that were repaired on the same day. Crews broke down three of the large trucks, stripped off the plowing and salting equipment and set them up to haul material for the water main break repairs. After the repairs were completed those trucks are cleaned thoroughly and set back up for plowing operations. The Street Division work program for the last month consisted of: Pre-treating streets before each predicted snow falls. Salting and treating streets as necessary during and between each plowing event. o Spring clean-up of boulevard/sod damage is beginning as the weather allows. Street crews began opening catch basins to allow adequate drainage during snow melt Hot mix asphalt became available so crews have been out aggressively addressing pot holes. The weather has allowed for the street sweepers to be brought out of storage and both sweepers are out sweeping streets. o Crews have also been out sweeping trails and sidewalks. Sign maintenance continues as time allows. o Load limits/weight restrictions went into effect on March 6th. Street crews installed temporary load limit signs throughout the City. Storm sewer maintenance has begun to ramp up for the season. o Inlets at Kroiss pond was dug out and cleaned up o Crews repaired a sink hole over a storm sewer main line that had separated. The pipe and the street were repaired. Street crews were called to check on 6 street lights that were failing o Street crews were able to repair 2 of those lights o Signature Lighting was called in to repair 2 of those lights CITY OF SHOREVIEW PUBLIC WORKS REPORT Page 4 of 5 o Xcel energy was responsible for the other 2 lights. Crews also operated equipment and worked with the DOC crew cleaning pipe work throughout the maintenance center The Utility Division work program for the last month included: Each day Utility personnel inspected all the wells, lift stations, water towers, the booster station and the water treatment plant. Regular/routine scheduled maintenance is performed and any necessary repairs are completed as needed. o They have been cleaning the well houses and pipes as needed. o Painting inside well house 2. o Crews plow and maintain access to all wells, lift stations and towers. Utility crews continue to respond to location requests by marking underground City utilities in proposed excavation areas.
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