By meadowlakeNOW

City crews busy clearing streets after recent heavy snow

Jan 31, 2018 | 6:00 PM

Two large snowfalls in the last five days have dumped nearly 15 centimetres of snow on Meadow Lake, and city crews have been busy clearing roadways. While the process takes time, the city has a strategy that starts as soon as the first flakes fly.

City manager Diana Burton said the community is split up into four different priority levels, with one being the highest. Crews will clear the streets with two graders, typically leaving a windrow of snow in the middle. Once all streets are cleared, the snow windrows are then piled into a dump truck and hauled to the city’s snow removal site.

“After a couple inches, we’ll get out there and start moving the snow,” she said. “Priority one streets include main routes for access to the hospital, Northland Pioneer Lodge, schools and the fire station, the downtown area and the road along highway 4 are also included in that. The justification for is that they’re the most likely where any emergency vehicles will have to run so we try to get those done first.”

Priority two includes all avenues and residential streets, some less used east side streets are priority three and back alleys are considered the lowest priority. Crews will work the map in sequence, but given the close time period between the two snow events, priority one streets went back to the top of the list.

“Ideally you get through everything, in this instance, that didn’t happen as we got our next snowfall before we got through it all,” she said. “Once snow falls again, and the roads need to be cleared, we go right back to priority one. The process can take a little while, especially when you get two snow events in close proximity.”

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Burton added over the weekend, there were crews that worked 12 hour shifts plowing, and started their shifts early, at 4 am on Tuesday clearing snow.

She said there are a number of things residents can do to assist with snow clearing, including not shoveling snow from a driveway sidewalk, or back alley onto the street, not parking on residential streets for extended periods of time, not running extension cords out into the street or across sidewalks, and choosing an alternate route around snow removal work areas.

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath