Streets and Roads lays out 2025–26 snow plan: salt stock, new equipment and staffing gaps

Rob Allen, director of streets and roads, presented Lexington’s snow and ice control plan for the coming season, describing service-level targets, salt inventories, route balancing and staffing needs.

Allen said the department’s goals for Service Level 1 (one to four inches) are to complete road treatment within 48 hours of precipitation ending and to clear sidewalks within 96 hours. He told the committee the city currently has roughly 8,800 tons of salt in two barns and can order an additional 11,000 tons under budgeted authority.

“Service level 1, which is 1 to 4 inches of snow, we project to complete the plan within 48 hours of the precipitation ending,” Allen told the committee. He described treatment tiers for Service Level 2 (4–8 inches) and Level 3 (8 inches or more) and noted consecutive small events can escalate to a higher service level for response planning.

Equipment, contractors and changes for 2025–26

Allen said the city added three tanker trucks, a custom blender and truck fill capability at the West Hickman barn, three new dump trucks (replacing high-maintenance units) and three additional contractor trucks from a longtime vendor (Red River Ranch), bringing contractor capacity to eight trucks. The department also added a landscape contractor able to provide up to eight trucks when higher service levels are declared.

Allen said the new blender allows adjustments to additive (beet-heat) mix to improve brine performance at subfreezing temperatures; the department said it successfully treated roads down to 15 degrees last year after increasing the additive percentage.

Routes, sidewalks and coordination with schools

Streets and roads rebalanced routes with University of Kentucky assistance to equalize mileage and time across four-truck routes within each zone. Allen said each route is assigned a primary salt barn (Old Frankfort or West Hickman). The plan does not commit to clearing every Fayette County School bus route in all but the most severe events; Allen said the department will scale up and add routes where possible during prolonged storms but that fully clearing all bus routes would require significant additional trucks, drivers and cost.

Allen described coordination measures: a stakeholders meeting with LexTran and Fayette County Schools, an agreement for mutual assistance with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) in emergencies, ongoing updates to internal communications and the inclusion of LexPark in planning. He also said PIO will prioritize messaging that explains what treated roads look like and manages public expectations about chemical treatment timing and visibility.

Staffing and shortages

Allen reported 68 CDL positions in streets and roads with nine vacancies; water quality has 29 positions and nine vacancies (potentially rising to 12). Parks maintenance will provide seven full-time CDL drivers plus up to 11 additional staff as needed. He described reliance on contractors, retirees and staff from other divisions to fill gaps and said nationwide scarcity of CDL-qualified drivers continues to hamper capacity despite pay increases and incentives.

Questions from council

Committee members asked about integration of school bus route GIS data; Allen and the Fayette County Schools transportation director said they are working with vendors to share route “shape files” and that updated routes for 2025–26 will be provided to the city. Councilmembers asked about sidewalk clearing priorities and why a previous two-sided clearing of Man O’ War had been reduced to a single-side focus to speed overall coverage.

Ending: Allen said the department will publish the final snow-and-ice control plan to the city website at month’s end, continue coordination with schools and partners, and work to fill CDL vacancies; committee members thanked staff for the presentation and for past emergency responses.