By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
With over 40 centimeters of snow dumped on the Saskatoon region in two big snowfalls last week, public works crews have been working long hours to clear streets and roads.
By Monday morning, November 25, traffic in most communities had just barely started moving again, with many residents in rural areas still snowed in. All schools in the Prairie Spirit School Division, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, and Saskatoon Public School Division were closed for the day.
The first major snowfall of the season swept through the area on November 19, depositing about 16 centimeters of hte white stuff.
Public works departments of local municipalities immediately set to work clearing the snow according to strategies developed by each community.
They had just wrapped up those operations when the skies opened up to give everyone a second helping in the form of 25 more centimeters of snow on Saturday, November 23.
The City of Warman’s strategy for snow removal is laid out in Bylaw No. 2023-10. It first identifies a number of arterial streets that are the first priority for grading and states that “every effort will be made” to maintain these priority routes as close to pavement as possible.
The bylaw then lists a number of collector streets that must be cleared after the top priorities are handled.
The remaining residential and business streets will then be cleared, with the bylaw further specifying when the snowpack will be centre ridged and hauled away.
Andy Szachlewicz, communications liaison for the City of Warman, said the majority of snow removal is handled in-house by the municipality, but they do contract out some work.
He said the city has two graders dedicated to snow clearing, as well as two sidewalk cleaners, one loader, one skid steer, one backhoe, three dump trucks, one self-propelled snowblower and two tractors (one with a 12-foot blade).
In terms of how Warman responded to this first big snowfall, Szachlewicz said they did fairly well getting the Priority 1 and 2 streets cleared, “considering that they had to be done twice … because the snow didn’t stop and the wind created major drifts.”
Much like Warman, the City of Martensville follows a plan for clearing streets according to traffic volume, clearing major arterial streets first, followed by collector roads and then residential streets.
Matt Gruza, director of infrastructure and planning for the City of Martensville, said the majority of their snow operations are handled by the municipality, but they do use contractors to haul snow after they have cleared streets.
In terms of the city’s infrastructure, Gruza said the city has two graders, two loaders and a variety of smaller equipment like skid steers and tractors that are used for snow removal.
Following the November 19 storm, he said their crews were able to get out early clearing snow, but every snow event is different and presents its own challenges.
“There is some unpredictability but the goal is always to create safe access throughout the city as quickly as possible,” Gruza said.
In the RM of Corman Park, director of infrastructure Hayder Lateef said they also follow a strategy of prioritizing high-traffic roads first, followed by streets in hamlets and the roadways that serve multiple subdivisions.
Like Warman and Martensville, snowclearing is mostly handled in-house. Lateef said they have a couple of snowplows and a total of 12 graders that they utilize, though not all of them are in use at the same time.
When asked about how the RM fared following the storm, Lateef said they didn’t suffer any major hiccups, even though the wind sometimes pushed snow back onto roads, necessitating a second clearing.
“I’d say we were prepared,” Lateef added.
Of course, a weather event like this always brings in a wealth of complaints about roads not being cleared fast enough. Lateef said that is understandable, but they would urge residents to have some patience.
“We wish we could clear it all at once, but obviously that’s impossible. We do have to prioritize,” he said.