City crews can’t keep up to big snowfalls
In my opinion, we have had a pretty decent winter. It’s been a bit nippy, but we haven’t had much snow until it began last week. Our snow gauge, the Adirondack chairs in our backyard, were surrounded by snow only to the seat level early last week and are now no longer visible.
I don’t mind nippy, but a lot of snow just doesn’t float my boat anymore.
My skiing days have been over for some time. In case any of you wondered or felt uncomfortable asking, I wasn’t a bad skier until the day I took a run on an icy hill.
Here I am, six knee surgeries later, and no more. Whistler is doing fine without me. I limp a bit, using extreme caution when walking. Desmond Parker gave me the best advice many years ago.
He told me to shuffle and take it slow. OK, so it makes me look much older than I am but at least I haven’t fallen yet.
Just after the snow got started last Tuesday, I took Jo to the airport. I took my time, almost crawled driving home. The next 48 hours were horrific. It was like a blizzard. But I grew up with Nor’easters which were much worse than a measly 60 cm. Fortunately, my neighbour cleared our driveway several times.
On Thursday, our street was so bad that I was afraid to take our Subaru out. I was a hostage in my own home, not even escaping to do my radio show.
I love Prince George, probably more than many, but since Colin Kinsley was mayor I have been hearing about P.G. being a winter city. I get that.
So why are we in such a catastrophic state when we get a blast of snow?
Real winter cities know how to remove snow more quickly, especially after such storms.
I get annoyed with my Jo and coffee chums who compare us to big cities like Ottawa and Toronto.
I do listen when they speak of places like Red Deer and Thunder Bay because they are of similar size. They have different equipment and better standards. So why don’t we?
In 2014, the city realized that and sought the help of Mercury Associates who reviewed P.G.’s snow and ice operations compared to best practices in other cities.
Their reports and recommendations are on the city web site.
They commented that our snow removal policy defined levels of service but did not include the timeframes required to complete plowing all three street priorities.
Most cities have a 72 hour (three day) or less timeframe by which all roads, including residential roads, are cleared. That includes those dangerous windrows removed from the centres of streets.
It stopped snowing last Thursday evening. By Tuesday evening of this week, five days after it stopped snowing, that three-day level had not been achieved. The result? People were anxiously listening to the weather forecast waiting how much snow the next snowfall will bring.
Mercury assessed the condition of 17 pieces of city-owned specific snow and ice control equipment.
Sixteen pieces were either completely worn out and need to be replaced or significantly worn out and needed to be refurbished.
So how much snow do we get in relation to other cities? Between 1981 and 2010, the average total annual snowfall for selected cities was: Victoria 33 cm, Kelowna 63 cm, Saskatoon 73 cm, Peterborough 138 cm, Prince George 142 cm, Thunder Bay 162 cm, Ottawa 175 cm, Montreal 209 cm, Sudbury 263 cm, and Moncton 282 cm.
It is frightening to be driving along rows and rows of snow piled in the middle of the street, not being able to see people turning into a side street. Even when we get only four to eight centimetres of snow, it takes days before the piles are removed. We do not have enough machinery with snowblower attachments to clear the streets of those traffic barriers in a timely fashion.
Effective and efficient snow and ice control require dedication to adopting and implementing best practices to provide and maintain safe transportation systems. This storm has given the city the opportunity to report to us how they are coming with the implementation of the four-year-old Mercury Report.
Our city workers are doing the best that they can, but we must give them the right tools, training and proper route scheduling.
We are a winter city.