THUNDER BAY – The City of Thunder Bay says road crews are on track to meet a 72-hour standard for residential road clearing after a challenging week featuring multiple snowfalls that has left many residential roads still clogged with snow and slush.
“It’s been busy over the holidays here with the snow events we had, but cleanup has been going well, and crews have been working kind of non-stop the last week,” said roads manager Ian Spoljarich.
He said crews were clearing residential streets on Thursday, and hoping to complete that task as soon as the end of day, though it could continue into Friday.
Workers were still clearing priority sidewalk routes Thursday, while moving into some residential areas and trails. That likely won’t be complete until early next week, Spoljarich said.
Environment Canada meteorologist Gerald Cheng said Thursday that more flurries are in the forecast for Sunday, and could begin Saturday evening, but the agency has not yet projected snowfall amounts.
Spoljarich said he’s not yet sure how much snowfall to expect over the weekend, and it remains unclear whether snow clearing will be necessary.
The city can call roads workers in on holidays as needed, though Spoljarich said the closure of some repair shops over the Christmas break can present challenges.
Crews are on track to meet the city’s regular 72-hour standard for residential snow-clearing, he said (that standard can be relaxed during “severe” snow events).
The 72-hour standard is measured from when a snow event has stopped and crews begin clearing residential streets after finishing with arterial and collector routes. That occurred around 9 a.m. on Thursday, Spoljarich said.
According to the city’s winter operations standards, after an accumulation of five centimetres or more of snow on the roadway, crews begin clearing major arterials, collectors, bus routes, and streets abutting schools, hospitals, homes for the aged, and fire, ambulance, and police stations.
Once those priority routes are cleared, residential streets are plowed if there’s an accumulation of 10 centimetres or more of snow.
Plowing operations typically begin around 2 a.m., while sidewalk clearing usually starts around 3 a.m., the city says.
Weeks into the snow-clearing season, Spoljarich said the city is already considering whether it will have to begin snow removal to cart away large piles of snow along roadways.
“We’re getting there,” he said. “These warm temperatures are helping right now, but pretty soon we’re going to have to decide if snow removal is required or not.”
With files from Sheri Leviski-Kotyk, CKPR Radio
