Downtown streets get snow-clearing priority at night. The main downfalls of snow since Thursday have come at night. That means clearance crews have had to go back and start again before getting to the tertiary streets.
"We were obviously hit hard and it will take a little bit to catch up," said the City of Prince George's manager of transportation Al Clark. "We are busy. We had 55 pieces of equipment working downtown on Sunday. And [Monday] during the day we have seven graders, three sidewalk machines, six plow trucks, and 17 loaders [four owned by the city, 13 rented from contractors].
"Monday night we will be going hard with rented trucks to follow the snowblower and haul away a lot of the built-up snow," said Clark. "Also, we will have eight graders [five city, three contractors], and 16 loaders [four city, 12 rental], our eight sander/plow trucks, plus our three sidewalk machines all out during the night."
But more snow is in the forecast. If it builds up past 100 mm (a bit less than four inches), they have to go back and start at the beginning. If that is at night, they hit the downtown streets again, if it is daytime they put the attention on the primary arteries like Ospika, Foothills, North Nechako, University Way, etc. that channel the highest volumes of traffic.
If that setback occurs, it bumps back the arrival of snowplows on residential streets. Clark said all the streets can be plowed within about four days under normal circumstances, but each time a restart occurs, it delays that service to the neighbourhoods.
"As far as residential clearing goes, we are broken down into small areas and we alternate where that activity happens. It isn't always the same area that gets plowed out first," said Clark.
The amount of snow definitely slows down the crews' progress, he confirmed. There isn't much effect on the graders and plows, but the loaders have to make extra passes. He said the kind of snow [dry and fluffy] that came from this aggressive Pacific front has not put much of a dent in the time it takes to complete one pass of the city, but it has caused them to restart, so residential streets are getting deep.
There haven't been any mechanical failures or equipment scheduling issues to set crews back much either. Clark said there are always some glitches, but "nothing that has crippled us" on the mission.
Jan. 1 is the changeover date for the city's snow removal budget. Clark said it is too early in the new budget cycle to know if they are on target or not, but the constant fleet efforts of the past few days is not cheap.
The work has to be done. City policy and public opinion demand it. Clark said he and his staff are circling satellite images, radar data, Environment Canada feeds and all manner of weather forecasts like sharks around a tuna. More snow is expected, but how much and when is less predictable. City crews may not like having to start again at square one, but the equipment and staff will be on the roads in any event.
