Snowstorm this month cost city $2.5 million
Part of costs went to Edmonton and other cities that provided help
The record-breaking snowfall earlier this month cost the city $2.5 million to clean up, including about $350,000 in funds paid to other cities that came to Calgary ’s aid in the days that followed, according to city estimates.
Between 38 and 45 centimetres of snow fell across Calgary during the snowstorm that peaked Oct. 2. The 38.1 cm of snow that fell in one day was equivalent to four Octobers worth of snowfall, according to a city report on the storm, which was dubbed “Snowtober” on social media.
The city began preparing for the storm on Oct. 1, making its equipment and fleet mechanics available and pre-treating the roadways with salt.
Its Priority 1 routes, which handle the city ’s largest traffic volumes and see upwards of 20,000 vehicles per day — including Glenmore, Sarcee and Macleod trails — were cleared within 24 hours after the snowfall ended. Priority 2 routes, which include the city’s key bus routes, were cleared within 48 hours.
But Calgary didn’t do it alone, as nearby cities and towns, including Medicine Hat, Red Deer and Okotoks, provided 13 operators, four graders, five sanders and one loader plow to assist with snowclearing efforts on the afternoon of Oct. 2.
The following morning, a crew from Edmonton — 60 operators, 15 front plows, 15 belly sanders, three foremen and one mechanic — got to work, lending a hand to its southern neighbours.
“I think anytime you can strike a partnership and deploy resources that way in an effective manner is better than purchasing equipment that will sit dormant and depreciate,” said Coun. Jyoti Gondek. “Plus, you’ve got to pay for the storage of that equipment.”
Oct. 2 was Calgary’s snowiest day since 1981. The storm also set a mark for the most snow on that date in Calgary ’s recorded history. The city’s 311 line received more than 800 service call requests throughout the snowstorm. About 1,600 tickets were also issued during a 44-hour snow-route parking ban from Oct. 3 to 5.
With some buses stranded amid a flurry of traffic-delay reports, about 2,000 calls were placed to Calgary Transit’s customer-service centre on Oct. 2 — roughly four times the volume received on an average day.
Gondek said the city’s response earlier this month was the best it could do, given the circumstances.
“One of the things that people have been criticizing is that enough of the crews weren’t out, and we know that every piece of equipment was out,” she said. “With the temperature changes, there’s not much we could’ve done to manage anything differently than we did.
“There were people saying, ‘Why wasn’t more of the pickling mixture used?’ Because with the temperature, that wouldn’t have been effective. The way in which the temperature change happened over that period of time rendered anything that could’ve been done preventively with limited effect because different things are needed at different times.”
The city said it had spent just over half of its snow-and-iceclearing budget for the 2018 calendar year before this month’s snowstorm.