At least 10 more days to remove snow in Montreal, garbage collection to resume Monday

The city of Montreal says it’s cleared about a third of the snow from the two historic back-to-back major winter storms that hit the city last Thursday and Sunday – and it could be at least another 10 days before the city’s more than 10,000 kilometers of streets and sidewalks are back to being fully functional.

This is the fifth day of Montreal’s snow-removal operation, following the 74 centimetres that were dumped on the city. And on Friday morning, about 34 per cent of the snow had been cleared.

The operation is expected to cost the city around $50 million with nearly 3,000 workers and 2,500 snow-clearing vehicles taking part.

Grabage pickup is set to resume next Monday after it was suspended on Feb. 17 to help with snow clearing.

On Thursday, officials said parked vehicles, in no-parking zones, were slowing things down.

City of Montreal spokesperson Philippe Sabourin telling CityNews over a four-day period, they had tow 8,000 trucks and cars – equivalent to about 1.4 vehicles every minute. He added that each time a car has to be moved, it delays the snow-clearing operation by about five to 10 minutes.

Each part of the city is making gains in snow loading as of Thursday morning, with the most advanced being: L’Île-Bizard-Sainte-Geneviève where 57 per cent of snow removal is completed; Pierrefonds-Roxboro at 47 per cent; Lachine at 45 per cent; Saint-Leonard at 42 per cent and Anjou at 41 per cent.

Areas that seem to be lagging behind are Ahuntsic-Cartierville and the Sud-Ouest at 26 per cent, and Côte-des-Neiges-NDG, Outremont, and Ville-Marie at 28 per cent.

City officials held a press conference on Friday at the Angrignon snow depot in LaSalle. They say there are 10 snow depots on the island where they can bring the snow they are loading to.

“Here at Angrignon we have the snow capacity of nearly eight Olympic-size swimming pools. We’re just under half full. There’s plenty of room here,” explained Mayor Valérie Plante. “We have a quarry too that we can fill. […] There’s plenty of space. It’s good timing, because there’s a lot of snow in Montreal.”

“There’s still a lot of work to be done. About 60 per cent of the sidewalks are cleared,” said Plante. But added that it really varies from one borough to another in terms how much of the sidewalks are cleared.

“Generally speaking, the streets are full of cars. To remove snow from sidewalks and streets, you have to load it onto trucks, which then come to a site like this one [Angrignon snow depot].”

To ensure safe and efficient operations, city crews will benefit from a 24-hour rest period after reaching the maximum working hours threshold.

“A rotating break is therefore scheduled from Friday to Saturday to enable our crews, who handle large vehicles in complex environments, to remain alert and ensure risk-free snow-clearing operations,” said the city in a press release.

More flurries in the forecast

Flurries are in the forecast for Montreal Friday, with a 30 per cent chance of snow on Saturday and periods of snow in the evening.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) forecasting a mix of sun and clouds on Sunday.

Temperatures climbing on Monday to plus 1°C, with snow in the forecast – and then snow or rain at night.

The mercury will stay above zero for Tuesday with rain and a high of 4°C.

More sun and clouds on Wednesday and 2°C.

Then another chance of flurries for Thursday and dipping back down to -1°C.