Croque-glace: a bad bargain?
QMI asks whether the city’s expensive croque-glace machines were worth the price, given they can only work under specific conditions or else risk tearing up road and sidewalk surfaces. Note the heavy presence of Lionel Perez in this story. But it may be true that the city oughtn’t to have invested in a dozen of these gadgets before testing one in real world, real winter conditions.
mare 09:40 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
I vaguely remember they tested one or two (in Verdun?) last year.
Steve Q 09:59 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
I hate to repeat myself again but heated sidewalk would have been a much better investment. Yes, they wouldn’t be covering the entire city but so is these new ”toys” who won’t go on certain sidewalk because they are too narrow.s
dwgs 10:43 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
If we have purchased a bunch of these things why are we not seeing them in action? Are they waiting for an even icier winter?
Kevin 11:04 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
Ice needs to be at least 3 cm thick to use them without damaging the sidewalk. So if there’s one bare patch (because all the salt was dumped in one spot) they can’t use them.
Alex L 12:34 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
Problem is, we don’t seem to have real winter conditions anymore.
Bill Binns 12:54 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
I think the large scale heating of sidewalks throughout the city is unworkable. Even for a province that is swimming in budget megawatts like we are, the amount of energy needed would be staggering. Years ago somebody posted an article on this blog that explained what it would take to melt snow in place rather than trucking it around and it was eye-opening.
Faiz Imam 14:26 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
I susepct we will see more use for these machines as time goes by. The conditions for ice rink type hazards is a lot of snow on the ground, followed by worm temperatures and rain, followed by a deep freeze. We’re def going to see more of that sort of variability going forward.