That’s why there’s always a rush for snow tires, shovels, and salt when the first snow falls, rather than weeks in advance. Public Works departments can’t bury their heads in the sand, however—they just have to make sure they have enough of it.

They prepare the machinery, they train the crews, and they check the forecasts. In addition to the regional forecasts that are generally available, Public Works also receives detailed local meteorological reports three times per day. With all that, everyone uses their judgment, their experience, and the

evidence of their own eyes. Everyone knows that in this climate, you have to be ready for anything.

Last weekend saw the arrival of just about everything winter weather can throw at us: rain, freezing rain, high winds and snow. The Public Works Department was fully mobilized to deal with it, beginning with the slippery sidewalks. The rain is more likely to freeze on contact with concrete than with asphalt, but the roads had to be done, too.

The City has different vehicle types that can spread melting and abrasive substances to deal with ice, but for the most part it relies on the little tracked sidewalk plows called ‘Bombardiers.’ The larger salt spreaders, mounted on six-wheel trucks, use a mixture of salt, pre-wetted with calcium chloride. The wetting prevents the salt from scattering all over the place, and increases its efficacy in temperatures below minus 15. City crews can salt the entire city road and sidewalk network in four hours, and on Friday, they did.

Then the high winds blew in, and trees, already burdened with ice, were vulnerable. Branches and tree limbs started falling around the city on Friday afternoon, and crews stayed on the roads to clear the debris until one o’clock Saturday morning. Then the wind gathered strength – winds of up to 80kmh were reported – and that was good news / bad news. Good, because, the winds dried out the sidewalks. Bad, because it blew down more branches. The department reported 155 locations with tree debris that needed clearing. City crews are not permitted to work on private property, so if you have fallen tree debris on your property, you must bring it to the side of the road for collection. It should all be cleared by the end of this week.

On Sunday about five centimetres of snow fell, which had to be plowed, but it wasn’t enough to warrant a ‘loading operation’. That’s what they call it when plows, blowers and trucks are mobilized to remove a large amount of snow. Westmount can remove a fall of 15 centimetres in two days, and a monster dump of 20 centimetres will take more than three days to clear. Problems arise when one snowstorm is succeeded by others in quick succession, or when conditions see-saw back and forth, causing much changing of equipment and wear and tear on workers and vehicles.

But I see the sun is shining now, so

perhaps winter is over—for a little while.



• George Bowser is Westmount’s City Councillor for Ward 5 and Commissioner of Public Works.