Saint Petersburg was visited by delegation from South Korean province Gyeongsangbuk-do. The visit was organized by the Committee for external relations after the appeal of the South Korean side, interested in studying the experience of snow removal in St. Petersburg.
As representatives of the Administration of the South Korean province told, there has been a lot of snow in the North of the province recently. The population at the same time makes high demands on snow removal, and the authorities are studying the experience of different countries in this area. St. Petersburg was not chosen by chance: it is the second most populous city in Russia.
The Korean delegation consisted of 15 people, among them-the leadership of the Department of road improvement Of the Committee for the construction of the province of Gyeongsangbuk-do, representatives of ten cities and districts of the province, employees of the subordinate organization for road management.
Specialists of the Committee for improvement of St. Petersburg and sue "Vodokanal of St. Petersburg" showed the guests the work of the snow melting point in the Nevsky district. As it was noted, the peculiarity of the technology used is the use of waste water heat for melting snow. This allows you to save resources, reduce the negative impact on the environment.
Per day, such a snow melting point is able to dispose of up to 7 thousand cubic meters of snow, i.e. about 700 dump trucks. In total, there are 11 points in the city, the capacity of each - from 3.5 to 7 thousand cubic meters.
During the inspection of the objects, representatives of the Korean side admitted that they saw such an amount of snow for the first time.
Also during the visit, members of the South Korean delegation were shown the base of the "Palace" GUDP "Center"convoy. Guests were able to get acquainted with the operating conditions of the equipment and the control room. Delegates didn't find equipment as it all worked on the line. However, colleagues were interested in the program developed and implemented by the city Government, which allows to track the route and loading of equipment.
The Korean delegation was also interested in the experience of St. Petersburg in the use of various mixtures against ice. A big problem for them is the fact that the use of salt in the province deteriorates roadbed.
St. Petersburg residents told the guests that the Northern capital of Russia uses sand and salt mixture, which consists of about 10% salt and 90% sand. This composition allows you to maintain the sand in a loose state, it does not freeze in the cold, and salt in this percentage does not spoil the shoes of citizens and the road surface, does not have a negative impact on the environment.
Earlier, delegations from Latvia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and even Iran came to study the achievements of St. Petersburg in the fight against snow (for the latter, sand cleaning is of interest). In the next month, meetings are planned to exchange experience with the specialists of the Department for the maintenance of public areas of the Department of urban environment of Helsinki city hall.
Reference: Province Gyeongsangbuk-do (another variant spelling of the Gyeongsangbuk-Do) is about one fifth of the territory of the Republic of Korea (19030 sq km, which is 19.1% of the total area of the country), it is surrounded by mountains: to the East is mountains, Tabuk, and in the West – Sobek. This location in the summer makes this province perhaps the hottest, and in winter it snows.