Sudbury's winter road maintenance goes $700K over budget

The City of Greater Sudbury went over budget on its winter road operation last year to the tune of $700,000.

A report submitted by the roads department cited above-average snowfall 159 centimetresor 108 per cent of the average snowfall from January to March and freezing rain as a contributor.

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David Shelsted, the city's director of roads and transportation, said the city should be able to get back on budget if there's less snow during the later part of the year.

"Hopefully that those upcoming three months that still have to be logged bring us closer on budget, but we're in better condition that we were this time last year," Shelsted said.

"If we get a good November, December hopefully that will bring us back into budget," he said. "We've had very limited snowfall in April and typically we have one general call out."

The annual budget for the miscellaneous winter roads cost centre totals approximately $4.28 million.

The city was $1.8 million over its winter operations budget during the first four months of 2016.

The city can pay for the over-expenditure through a reserve fund that's designated for winter control.