Lexington is making changes to snow removal plan after prior complaints
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- Lexington bought trucks, hired contractors and stockpiled salt after complaints.
- City added brine tankers, dump trucks and contractors
- City raised salt budget, faces higher per ton costs and uncertain demand.
Lexington is gearing up for the winter snow season by buying more equipment, augmenting its snow removal staff and stockpiling salt, city officials said Tuesday.
The city was inundated with complaints in early January after severe winter storms hit the area, dumping a combination of snow and ice that shuttered schools for nearly a week. Many residents criticized the city for failing to do enough to clear city streets and make it possible to return to in-person school.
Rob Allen, director of streets and roads, told the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council’s Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee on Tuesday the city has made key changes to address those complaints, including adding new trucks, replacing old trucks and adding more contractors.
It is also upping communication and is better coordinating with Fayette County Public Schools, he said Tuesday.
Buying more trucks, adding more private contractors
The new trucks and equipment include:
- Three tanker trucks for brine and other additives to help pretreat roads.
- A custom truck and blender for brine.
- Three new dump trucks to replace aging fleet.
In addition, the city has added three contractor trucks for Red River Ranch, the city’s longtime contractor, which will help clear city streets if Lexington gets more than 5 to 8 inches of snow. Red River Ranch will now have eight contractor trucks on stand by, Allen said.
The city has also added a second contractor — a landscaper — to help clear streets, he said.
“We also added a landscape contractor who can provide up to eight trucks once we hit service levels two and three,” Allen said.
The lack of plowing on neighborhood streets rankled many residents in early January.
The city uses a ranking system to determine which roads get treated and plowed first. Rank 1 streets are major roads such as Nicholasville and Richmond roads, which are plowed first. Next, plows move to rank 2 streets, which are major collector streets such as Loudon and Lane Allen Road.
Rank 3 streets are residential connector streets such as Sandersville and Old Todd roads. Rank 4 streets are local streets such as Glendover Road and Dunkirk Drive.
The city also plows streets based on the amount of snow.
If the city gets up to 4 inches, it plows all rank 1-4 streets.
If the city gets 5 to 8 inches, it plows unranked collector streets in addition to rank 1-4 streets
If the gets more than 8 inches, it plows as many streets as possible including residential streets.
Costs for equipment, salt continue to rise
Allen told the committee Tuesday the private contractors will help the city get to rank 3 and 4 streets sooner. When the city gets rounds of snow and ice, snow plows have continued to return to rank 1 and rank 2 streets to keep those streets clear, slowing the city’s progress on lower ranked streets, city officials have said.
That’s what happened in early January.
Increasing the number of snow plows and adding more contractors costs a lot, Allen said — the city has already spent more than $2 million. And the city doesn’t know if those trucks and contractors will be needed.
Some of those additional costs include:
- Three tanker trucks: $1,086,594
- Three dump trucks: $837,483
- Three contractor trucks: $143,547. If those contractors are used, it’s $200 an hour.
That’s on top of salt costs. It’s total salt budget for the upcoming season is more than $1.2 million, which would allow the city to purchase an additional 11,000 tons if hit with a brutal winter, Allen said.
The city currently has 8,800 tons of salt.
The cost of salt per ton has also increased. In 2026, it will be $104 a ton, up from $88.99 in 2021, according to city numbers.
Allen said the city has raised wages for commercial drive license holders, which has helped with vacancy rates, which was a problem. Streets and roads has 68 CDL drivers and nine vacancies, the lowest vacancy rate in the past several years, he said.
In addition, there are eight supervisors and managers who can drive snow trucks, he said, and up to 11 CDL drivers from parks and recreation who can help plow streets.
Planning for snow and ice removal is tricky because the city has seen dramatic swings in winter weather over the years. Some years, the city has multiple snow storms. Other years, the weather is mild with few major snow or ice storms, data from the city shows.
“What are we doing to take into account these larger changes in our weather patterns over time?” said Councilperson Emma Curtis.
Allen said the city has been adding to its snow fleet and augmenting staffing over multiple years due to more extreme weather patterns.
What about FCPS bus routes?
The city has also had multiple conversations with Fayette County Public Schools about bus routes, Allen said. The city said in January it was still getting information about bus routes as the winter storm was ongoing.
“We have continuing meetings with them,” Allen said. “We used data from 2024-2025 for this year’s planning.”
Some of the bus routes change slightly each year, and the city will get new routes soon, he said.
But the city can’t clear all bus routes.
“To do all of school bus routes, you would need 15 additional trucks and 30 additional drivers,” Allen said.
It would cost the city an additional $20,000 per event to plow all bus routes.
Daryn Morris, director of transportation of Fayette County Public Schools, said they are currently working to get school bus route data to overlay on the city’s snow removal plan.
Councilman David Sevigny said Fayette County Public Schools used to have alternative bus routes during winter weather, and asked if returning to that model was an option.
Morris said he has been told that is no longer the practice because alternative snow bus stops or routes were on busy, more dangerous streets. Kids would have to wait at those bus stops in less than ideal conditions, Morris said.
