Digging Out from the Storms
As everyone digs out from the back-to-back snowstorms, I wanted to give some information about the storms, the City's response to date, and how we are managing the storms' aftermath.
For some context, the last two storms were *BIG!* Ottawa has received over 116 centimetres of snow since mid-January and almost 70 centimeters fell over a 5-day period last week. Right now, Ottawa has a total snow depth of 91cm – that’s the deepest it's been at this time of year since 1971! It’s no wonder the snow is so deep; the weekend storm was the snowiest storm in over 3 years. And the storm last Thursday was the previous snowiest day in over 2 years. Combined, they packed quite the punch.
To meet this challenge, City crews have been out in force. With close to 600 pieces of equipment, operators worked around the clock to keep roads cleared. Snow falls accumulated at a rate of up to 6cm an hour. This, combined with extremely high winds, meant that the City’s winter road maintenance teams had to go back and forth multiple times to keep priority roads cleared throughout the storms. Crews on our roads have cumulatively travelled over 62,000km while clearing our transportation network since the first storm last week. That’s the equivalent of going around the world one and a half times, in a snowplow, during a storm!
Even so, there’s more work to do. The City is shifting its effort to snow removal operations, physically removing snow from the side of the road and transporting it to municipal snow storage facilities. Folks can expect to see City workers out in the community placing temporary ‘No Parking’ signs in snowbanks along the side of the roadway to prepare for snow removal – please make sure to observe these signs so that snow removal teams can get our roads fully cleared, cut back tall windrows, and improve sightlines at intersections. You will know that snow removal is taking place when you see temporary no parking signage in the community or line-ups of large trucks with snow being blown into the boxes.
These operations are expected to continue over the coming days and weeks. You can read more about these snow removal operations here.
I am extremely grateful to all the operators who worked long, hard hours doing their best to keep our roads and sidewalks clear. I am also grateful to residents who have been extremely patient throughout the storms, as well as the many folks in our neighbourhoods who went the extra mile to help shovel out a neighbour or offer up their driveway to reduce street parking so the plows could get through.
If you believe a street or sidewalk has been missed by operators or if there is a hazard on the network that needs *urgent* attention, please file a 3-1-1 request: https://ottawa.ca/en/3-1-1/report-or-request/road-and-sidewalk-maintenance/snow-and-ice