Potholes and snow clearing: Addressing Saskatoon’s increased road repairs

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A total of 1,800 tonnes of asphalt concrete was used to repair Saskatoon roads last year — a large increase over 2023.

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That’s according to a report for Tuesday’s transportation committee meeting, highlighting a 28 per cent increase in the amount of asphalt concrete used to repair potholes compared to the previous year.

2024 SAW AN INCREASE IN POTHOLES

The 2024 summer road maintenance summary said there were roughly 3,300 potholes repaired that were reported by residents, which was a 52 per cent increase from the year before.

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More pothole-repair capacity was required due to the late snowfall in March 2024, the report said, adding that there were later freeze-thaws and several rainy days in early spring.

The city said it faced challenges in meeting pothole-repair service levels due to the significant increase in numbers.

Through budget discussions in December, additional funding was provided for pothole repairs in 2025, and the city said more private contractors have been secured to help in the work.

GRADING, MAINTENANCE AND SWEEPING

Crack sealant was used on 40 kilometres of road in Saskatoon in 2024 as part of the city’s preventative maintenance.

The city added that 400 kilometres of gravel back lanes were graded, and 10 kilometres were reconstructed.

Curb-to-curb sweeping and spring cleaning removed 11,600 tonnes of debris from streets.

It was noted that 102 kilometres of streets were swept in the fall in areas that had high leaf debris, to reduce the risk of drainage problems in the spring.

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SNOW CLEARING AND ACCESSIBILITY

The accessibility advisory committee is asking the transportation committee for more information on the city’s snow clearing program.

Issues raised in the advisory committee’s meeting back in February revolved around not being able to access Meewasin Trail because the trails were being cleared, but the ramps weren’t. There were also issues with not being able to park in some areas of the city due to snow build-up, which results in a lack of wheelchair access. They added that some areas were so bad Access Transit buses wouldn’t drive through them.

One of the more in-depth updates around the city’s snow removal efforts came in November, when the city noted that residential roads wouldn’t be cleared after a recent snowfall in an attempt to cut costs.

It was noted that activating the roadways emergency response plan would cost the city between $18 to $20 million.

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At that point, the city was already seeing pressures on the 2024 snow removal budget, with the city’s roadways director, Goran Saric, saying they were likely already over-budget.

“Based on the response that had to be activated in March this year, which was a partial activation of the emergency response plan, which ended up costing us close to $6 million, that actually did put us over the annual budget already,” Saric said back in November.

According to Saric, the city plans for five major snow events in a year, which would be any accumulation over 5 cm.

He added that a typical snow event costs the city between $1 million to $1.5 million.

Since then, the city had cleared and scraped residential roads and industrial roads to lessen the severity of some of the developing ruts that get created with warmer weather.

The total budget for snow removal in 2024 was $15.8 million, with $16.9 million budgeted for 2025.

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It was noted that a report on the city’s snow-removal efforts would be seen closer to the end of the first quarter in 2025.

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