Little mountains on the prairie

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This article was published 04/01/2017 (3415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s more snow than the city can reasonably remove, and it’s causing slippery streets, impassable sidewalks and treacherous intersections.

After Winnipeg’s second-snowiest December on record — with 68.8 centimetres — and more snow at the start of the new year, Winnipeg drivers may feel they need a mirror on a selfie stick to see past mountains of snow on many street corners.

The third major snowfall in less than a month dropped seven cm of snow on city streets Monday night and Tuesday morning. Even though streets have been plowed several times, they still have high snowbanks at nearly every intersection.

“Right now, basically, the on-site boulevard storage of snow is essentially full,” said Coun. Marty Morantz (Charleswood, Tuxedo, Whyte Ridge), who chairs the infrastructure, renewal and public works committee, which includes snow clearing.

“It’s important that people understand that we do go back and haul away much of the snow that was deposited on boulevards, and that’s a major operation.

“In addition to improving sightlines, we haul away that on-site storage so that we’re prepared for future snowfall if we have to go through what we have done in December.”

 

“Given the historic amounts of snow that have fallen, the City of Winnipeg and its contractors have done an incredible job of getting the streets opened up,” Morantz said.

“We are a winter city, of course, but the degree of snowfall that we’ve seen in the last four weeks is certainly of historic proportions. What we’ve seen, really, is an extraordinary effort and largely successful effort in getting our streets and sidewalks and lanes cleared.

“There are always going to be areas where we can try to do things even better, but our snow-clearing policy is very comprehensive compared to most other cities in the country.”

He said many cities in Canada don’t clear sidewalks, others don’t plow residential streets and many don’t scrape residential streets.

Clearing snowbanks is a regular part of the operation, and a city spokeswoman said relief is on the way.

“A major snow-hauling operation is in progress in all areas of the city to improve sightlines at intersections and to remove excess snow,” she stated in an email.

Snowbanks tough for motorists to see over

In the meantime, drivers are urged to be patient and cautious.

“High snowbanks present challenges for motorists,” said Brian Smiley, spokesman for Manitoba Public Insurance.

“When visibility is blocked by a high snowbank, a motorist is advised to enter the roadway slowly and cautiously. In some situations, you may want to select another route that takes the motorist to a controlled intersection in order to enter safely.”

He said MPI doesn’t track collisions due to high snowbanks.

“However, we do know by talking to customers that some collisions are due to blocked visibility caused by high snowbanks,” Smiley said.

Morantz said he doesn’t know the exact cost, but it will be millions of dollars to haul away all the snow.

“It will certainly have an impact on our snow-clearing budget. Now in 2017, we’re into a new budget year and this will be a fairly large dent, I’d have to say, in our snow-clearing budget for 2017,” Morantz said.

Kenaston dump site closed

Snow collected from boulevards and corners will be hauled to the city’s snow-disposal sites, which may take several days.

When open, the sites are available to the public 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

The north area’s site is on McPhillips Street, 1.25 kilometres south of the Perimeter Highway; the east area’s site is at the South End Water Pollution Control Centre, which is south of the Perimeter Highway and east of St. Mary’s Rd.; and the south area’s site is at the West End Water Pollution Control Centre, which is on the south side of Wilkes and west of the Perimeter Highway.

The Kenaston Boulevard site closed Dec. 30 after its capacity of 350,000 cubic metres was reached.

Motorists are advised to observe the city’s annual parking ban on snow routes, which is in effect from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. each day until March 1.

Snow routes are clearly marked with signs, and are designated as a top priority to ensure that emergency vehicles can travel around the city.

Vehicles parked in violation of the annual snow route parking ban can receive a $100 ticket and may be towed.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca