Snow removal is one of the necessary evils that accompany winter living in the city of Montreal. The past several years have seen a larger than normal amount of snow fall on the island during the traditional winter months of December to March. This has lead to an additional strain on the already stretched to the limit snow removal resources, and caused headaches for citizens in every neighborhood.
Why is it such an issue? Since Montreal is an island, there is a limited amount of undeveloped space where snow can be dumped and stored. Many people think that since it is surrounded by water, the snow is simply pushed into the river and allowed to melt. The reality is that this is impossible. Snow scraped from the road surfaces is filled with many different kinds of contaminants: oily residue from cars, trash and corrosive road salt. This makes it too hazardous from an environmental perspective to introduce into the water table.
Scrape, shovel and clear
The solution has been for the city to collect all of the snow and store it in designated areas where the melting will not leech into groundwater. This accomplished through a fairly elaborate process that can take several days to complete. First the major arteries of the city are cleared using plows and heavy equipment. This includes highways, boulevards, and parts of the downtown area. The next step is for plows to take care of road accumulation of secondary roads – usually in residential areas. Small sidewalk plows are also put to work making sure it’s not too treacherous for pedestrians.
At this point, large snow banks line each side of most roadways, making parking difficult and narrowing both highways and side streets. Signs are erected declaring temporary no-parking zones so that the giant snowblowers can go to work. Graders are used to move the snow from the side of the road into one long snow bank running down the middle of the street. An enormous snowblower then slowly makes it’s way through the pile of snow, blowing it into the dump truck positioned beside it. A procession of trucks are lined up one after the other, so that when one is full another can immediately take its place. The fully loaded truck takes its new cargo of snow to one of the many different storage areas in the city, where it is dumped out and the blown into a group of enormous piles.
How long does it all take?
This is process repeated over the course of several days – sometimes as long as a week, depending on the snowfall – until the entire island is cleared. Each snow fall costs millions of dollars to clear completely. In 2007/2008, Montreal began to run out of room to store snow. Some boroughs were forced to adopt emergency measures such as blowing snow from the street onto private property. Temporary snow storage sites were also opened up, with the largest being the old Turcot train yards. Neither decision was popular with citizens, who were upset with the dirty snow being blown into their yards and concerned about the possible groundwater contamination from the super-polluted Turcot yard.
The sight of all of the snow-removal equipment lumbering around Montreal in the dark of night is truly something to behold. But past that, the snow removal process is mostly a huge headache for everyone, whether it’s the parking ticket when you discover that where you left your car is suddenly a no parking zone or the annoyance of the tow truck horns in the early morning hours. Hopefully one day the city will find a more efficient way to keep the roads safe and clear.
