City hall explains why Omsk is buried in snowdrifts
The Department of Municipal Services of the Omsk City Hall explained to NGS55.RU the principle by which streets and sidewalks are cleared of snow. Complaints from residents about uncleared snowdrifts and ice on sidewalks have been constantly appearing on social media in recent days. As the city hall clarified, roads are cleared of precipitation not chaotically, but according to pre-established plans.
«Snow removal schedules are formed weekly taking into account weather conditions, including the frequency of snowfall and the amount of precipitation, as well as based on citizens» requests. First and foremost, work on treating with anti-icing materials, sweeping, spreading snow banks, removal and hauling of snow is performed on the sections most dangerous for traffic — central arteries with heavy traffic, bridges, overpasses, pedestrian crossings, and roads of the «Guest Route,»« the city administration explained.
Only after the priority routes are processed do the specified works continue on secondary roads. However, snow is not hauled away from sidewalks according to the municipal assignment; only sweeping (if it is physically possible) and sprinkling the paths with sand are conducted there.
The municipal assignment also affects snow removal on inter-block driveways. Snowdrifts are not hauled away from them either — they only perform spreading of banks and sweeping.
As emphasized by the Department of Municipal Services, the budget allocation does not divide funding for cleaning city roads into summer and winter. But funds are still insufficient, including for purchasing new equipment. According to regulations, 600 units of equipment are needed for normal road cleaning in winter, but only 403 are available.
«Based on the above, it is not possible to perform work on the winter maintenance of all objects of the street and road network in the city of Omsk in a timely and complete manner. Applicants with comments and suggestions on the winter maintenance of the street and road network of Omsk can contact the budgetary institution at the address: Omsk, Stepnaya Street, building 73, phone 21-67-70, 31-74-82,» residents were reminded.
Earlier we reported that the prosecutor«s office is monitoring snow removal in Omsk.
