Snow removal to proceed
A fifth campaign of snow removal will begin Monday at the start of a mixed week, with rain and snow expected Monday followed by a colder Tuesday and then temperatures bouncing above and below freezing for awhile, and we know what that can do to streets and sidewalks.
Kevin 11:43 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
The sidewalks in my NDG hood are currently a sheet of ice. Wear crampons.
Kate 12:32 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Even on the sunny sides?
dhomas 13:50 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Everything melted in my hood. There was a lake of melted ice in front of my house. My kids had fun making a river to guide all the water to the sewer.
Kate 15:59 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Things are just a smidge icy in shady spots, in my hood, but I went to do a quick grocery run in Little Italy and most of the sidewalk was dry. Still a lot of snowpiles between the cleared extent of the sidewalk and the street, and too many people out, trying to pass each other in that narrow space.
Kevin 18:11 on 2021-02-28 Permalink
Yah, even on the sunny sides this morning.
At some point the borough put down gravel so walking the pooch in the afternoon was safe.
Mr.Chinaski 09:41 on 2021-03-01 Permalink
Sunny sides can be the worse these days as melted snow –> water –> freezes back during the night.
Joey 14:29 on 2021-03-01 Permalink
It’s insane that the city is about to start a full-fledged snow removal operation for this measly amount of snow and ice. Especially with more snow forecast for the end of the week. Couldn’t they just pay the kickback without bothering everyone with the actual snow removal?
Kate 14:59 on 2021-03-01 Permalink
Joey, they wanted to scoop it up before it chills down and freezes in place, as explained here, and after walking around Sunday afternoon I could see the logic. But they’re against the clock, because temperatures are going to start falling fast after 6 p.m. Monday and be down around –17 by Tuesday morning.
Joey 17:38 on 2021-03-01 Permalink
That excuse made little sense yesterday and even less now. What could happen? The ice could get colder? There’s so little ice/snow (non-parking lanes and sidewalks are clear and dry), the plows won’t even pick up what’s left. Excited to hear the sirens at 6 tomorrow morning.
How many CO2 emissions will this purposeless operation cost us?
Kate 21:49 on 2021-03-01 Permalink
Joey, you say that, but there are big piles of snow on all the streets around here, yes, people can drive through but there’s a massive pile between the road and sidewalk on both sides, which is usually cleared when the road’s done. If those piles are left to thaw and freeze and thaw and freeze (which would be typical in March) it could create a much bigger mess, even if no more snow falls.
mare 00:19 on 2021-03-02 Permalink
It’s a really good occasion to finally make some potholes, otherwise our poor motorists have nothing to complain about this spring.
mare 00:28 on 2021-03-02 Permalink
@Kate, in our street 70% of those piles can’t be cleared because people have put plants in the carrés des arbres and staked them at all corners. The piles are sometimes almost 2 metres high. I usually shovel some snow off the top of “our” carré onto the street before snow clearing starts, but with curfew that was a no go tonight. (they’re scraping the street as I write this).
dhomas 07:12 on 2021-03-02 Permalink
I live on the border of 2 boroughs, and the plows from one borough dump their snow into the dead-end on the side of the other borough and just leave it there. The side effect of this is that they end up blocking the sewer drains near my house. As it thaws and freezes, it only makes a thicker layer of ice on top of the drain. So, when it thaws again, the water has no place to go, so it pools in front of my house. Eventually, there is so much water that it starts to go down my driveway, which is compounded every time the bus that runs in front of my house passes and pushes all the water down the driveway at once. One year, it almost flooded my garage and I needed to take the water out with buckets. This is just an example of the effects of not properly clearing snow.
I can see that there were a lot of piles of wet, slushy snow still about yesterday. With a 22 degree drop from yesterday midday to last night, that is basically going to flash freeze in place. It would be much more difficult to remove once frozen today.