City to improve snow clearing with drones, dump capacity
Despite record heat this summer, there is still some snow left over at the dump in the St-Michel quarry.
That is a good indication of just how much snow the city had to deal with last season, said JeanFrançois Parenteau, the executive committee member in charge of city services.
Parenteau pledged the city will be better prepared to clear snow this season, but he started a news conference Thursday by explaining why snow-clearing operations were particularly difficult last winter, saying the amount of snow that fell was exceptional for the city.
A total of 238 centimetres fell on city territory in the 2017-18 season, compared with an average of 190 centimetres, and it fell quickly, which caused a strain on the city’s snow dumps.
It was the most snow that fell in the city since 2007, when 371 centimetres fell, according to statistics from Environment Canada.
“Because it fell so quickly, the snow didn’t have a chance to melt before we had to dump it again in the snow dumps,” Parenteau explained.
That meant city crews hauled away 18.4 million cubic metres of snow, compared with the average of about 12 million.
“We ended up dumping about the same amount of snow as the 2007 season,” Parenteau said.
This year, Parenteau said, the city has increased capacity at several snow dumps, while others will rely on drones to help managers better pack the snow — a practice that started in a limited capacity last year.
While the snow-clearing budget will not increase, the city will be arming the boroughs with more salt and abrasives so they can conduct more frequent sidewalk de-icing operations. Crews will now be permitted to go above the city limit of 300 grams per square metre if an area is particularly icy, said city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin. While the central city is mandated to order a snow-removal operation, de-icing of roads and sidewalks falls within the jurisdiction of the boroughs.
While the city hopes to better manage its snow dumps, it seems likely that dumping will once again be a logistical problem for trucks hauling away snow in western Notre-Dame-de- Grâce.
Last January, crews faced problems when the Angrignon snow dump in LaSalle barred trucks hauling snow from N.D.G. because it was nearing capacity. Trucks were rerouted to the Francon quarry in St-Michel, but in a cruel irony got stuck in traffic by a snow-clearing operation that was happening on the Metropolitain Expressway and could not return to the borough quickly enough to pick up more snow.
As a stopgap measure, the city got authorization from Quebec’s Environment Department to create a temporary snow dump near the old Blue Bonnets racetrack. Parenteau said Thursday that option won’t be possible this season because of construction work going on in the area.
To make matters worse, the Angrignon Blvd. overpass at Highway 20 will be closed, effectively cutting off the LaSalle dump to N.D.G. trucks. Sabourin said trucks from Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-DamedeGrâce will be directed to snow dumps in the St-Laurent borough, and will continue to use the StMichel site as well. To avoid getting caught in traffic, most snow operations will take place during the night, he said.
The city will also be improving its Info-Neige mobile application to allow people to provide feedback to the city when there is a snow operation that has been badly done, if there is unclear signage during an operation or if a road or sidewalk in front of a bus stop, hospital or school is icy.