Public works crews in both Martensville and Warman are working flat-out to clear streets in the wake of the massive snowstorm which hit this region in early November.
Bolstered by additional equipment and manpower from hired contractors, their efforts are paying off.
Arterial and connector streets were ploughed in the immediate aftermath of the weekend storm, with windrows in the centre of those major roads removed by mid-week.
Residential streets in all parts of both cities were ploughed as well, with snow moved to the centre in windrows; a task which was completed by the end of the week.
However, the job won’t be completed for some time yet.
“As long as we don’t get another big dump of snow, we’re on schedule to have about half the residential streets in Martensville cleared by the beginning of next week, and we should have about 80 per cent of residential streets ploughed by the end of next week,” said Martensville Infrastructure and Planning Engineer Scott Loyns in an interview November 19. “If we do get a big snowfall between now and then, we’ll have to split the crews and put some back on clearing the major priority arteries again.”
Loyns said this is the first time the city is clearing all residential streets.
“Our policy is to plough the streets and then remove the windrows in the centre of the street when they reach one meter in height,” said Loyns. “But with that storm, every windrow in every street is at least one meter high, so they all have to be picked up and taken to the snow dump.
“It’s unprecedented, definitely.”
Loyns said Martensville has hired contractors to assist with the snow removal efforts. He noted that during the first week after the storm, city crews and contractors were putting in 12 to 15 hours per day. That has since been reduced to eight hour shifts.
“The City of Warman has hired multiple contractors to assist with snow removal,” noted a post by public works officials on the City of Warman facebook page November 18. “Removal of snow is expected to last for some time. Thank you for your patience.”
Public works officials in both cities are warning parents, in the interests of safety, to keep their children from playing on the piles of snow along the sides and in the centre of the streets.
Schedules for snow clearing in each city are posted on the respective city’s facebook pages, with daily updates on the progress being made by crews.
Signs are being posted by public works personnel in those areas of the cities where snow removal is scheduled. The signs are put up 24 hours ahead of the scheduled work
The public is urged to move their vehicles from the street in order to allow crews to complete their work.
Warman Bylaw Officer Wade Eberle is reminding the public not to push snow onto streets that have already been cleared.
“That really defeats the whole purpose,” said Eberle. “Please keep snow from driveways and residential sidewalks off the street.”