The City of Renton has 318 centerline miles and 753 lane miles of streets and rights of way (2022). The Street Maintenance Division is responsible for sweeping and cleaning the city streets, mowing rights-of-way, repairing city streets and sidewalks, overseeing the street overlay projects, and preparing to respond to emergencies such as snow/ice winter operations, flooding, and wind events.
Equipment and Supplies
The city has nine (9) sanders, 11 trucks with plows, and three (3) anti-icer applicator trucks. All sanders, plows, and deicer trucks are loaded and tested annually in October. The operators and our fleet maintenance mechanics will complete any issues or repairs.
The three (3) anti-icing applicator trucks carry 1,600, 300, and 150 gallons. The 1,600-gallon truck is specifically for multi-lane main arterials, and the smaller trucks are for secondaries and neighborhoods.
In storage tanks, the city has 9,500 gallons of liquid anti-icer, Freezgard CI Plus (Magnesium Chloride with corrosion inhibitor). The city's vendor is ready if more is needed during a storm.
Approximately 800 ton of road salt, over 1,500 ton of sand, and 400 ton of a sand/salt mix of 50%-50% is on hand.
Staff
The street division has 17 street maintenance workers, one (1) night sweeper (emergency responder) operator, and three (3) solid waste workers. Formal training sessions are held annually and cover winter operations anti-icing/plowing procedures.
All drivers study their route maps and drive their respective routes to look for potential hazards or obstructions. Renton's streets look completely different when covered in snow. This route pre-check helps prevent plow and truck damage when plowing begins.
Plowing Regions
The city is divided into five plowing regions. Plow trucks are distributed as evenly as possible, based on hills, major arterials, priority locations, and routes. Priority snow routes are main, secondary arterials and collectors, bridges, schools, hospitals and fire stations, and bus routes.
Many of these major routes will be re-treated with anti-icer as soon as the city knows an event is imminent. This helps keep ice and snow from bonding to the pavement and allows quicker snow removal through plowing.
Updated: Sept. 26, 2022