The City of Estevan moved quickly to start with snow removal efforts during and after a snow storm struck last week, but it took a methodical approach to removing the snow from residential streets.
Norm Mack, who is the manager of roads and drainage for the city’s public works division, said he believes Estevan received between 25-30 centimetres, or about 10-12 inches of snow. Even while the snow was still falling that day, city crews were out at 5 a.m. to work on Priority 1 streets, and salt trucks were also out.
“We windrowed them,” said Mack. “We’re going to blow the snow off of the main arteries and put whatever we can to the side on the arteries that permit that.”
One contracted grader was out to help with the snow removal efforts, but the rest of the workers clearing the streets were city employees. They worked overtime the first two days, as they were out until 7:30 p.m. that first night, and then they started at 4 a.m. the following day.
Mack was hopeful the sun and the warm temperatures melt the snow off of the main arteries.
“We don’t foresee that this is a full-blown emergency where we need to go into hiring contractors,” said Mack. “So we want to save our money and spend it smart and we want the weather to work with us.”
Priority 1 and 2 roads were finished as of Tuesday morning. He believed the Priority 3 were about 75-80 per cent complete, and should be finished by Wednesday afternoon.
An emphasis was placed on the roads surrounding Affinity Place due to the concert on Saturday night featuring The Offspring and SUM 41. The city wanted to make sure those roads were clear due to an expected surge in traffic.
Those roads were taken care of well before the concert.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of snowfall we get, we always clean up around that area, because we know there’s a lot of people that come and go, and a lot of activities in that area,” said Mack.
There were a couple of reasons why the city decided to opt against a large-scale snow removal effort. The first was above-zero temperatures were expected in the Estevan area over the weekend, which will melted away some of the snow on the roads.
The other was the lack of wind during the storm itself. The city didn’t have to worry about troublesome areas in the community.
“Nobody got it worse than anybody else,” said Mack. “It was pretty much 30 centimetres on the level. So there was no ground drifting. There was no wind. It’s just that some roads are busier than others, and they pack down quicker. Still, some streets looked a little heavier only because it’s lighter traffic in residential areas.”
Mack also noted there wasn’t any snow on the ground before last week’s storm, and there weren’t icy conditions, either.
A lot of ruts have formed on the roads from the warm weather on the weekend. They want those ruts off the streets, especially with another system in the forecast for later this week. The city is expected to receive another 10-15 centimetres between Nov. 28 and 30.
Mack said the city’s snow-removal fleet was ready for the snowstorm that hit last week, but employees were surprised by the amount. The initial projection in the snowfall warning issued on Nov. 19 was for 10-15 centimetres.
“We checked that night at 11 o’clock, and it was good, and we had people out at four o’clock (in the morning), and there must have been a pile of snow that fell within five or six hours. A lot of snow fell then. So we were prepared, but we weren’t expecting 30 centimetres.”
