Growing snow banks pose challenges for residents and City of Winnipeg crews

If you’re running out of room in your yard for snow, you’re not alone.

The city is experiencing one of its snowiest winters on record so far, and it’s not even March.

It’s been a challenge for both residents and city crews.

“I’m not sure with the amount of snowfall we have what the city could actually do with it at this point,” said Beth Neufeld, who was out for a walk downtown among some of the big banks. “You know we’ve been through lots of big snowstorms.”

So far this winter, Environment and Climate Change Canada said Winnipeg has received 156.6 centimetres of snow, making it the third-highest snowfall on record when compared to other years up until Feb. 20.

But winter isn’t over yet, meaning those banks outside your home may grow even larger.

“It’s not the end of the season. It’s not the end of the month,” Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, points out. “It’s quite normal to see snow through the end of February into March.”

The city said work was underway to tackle mounds of snow that have become a concern for commuters. But the latest blast of winter means removing the big banks that can make it tough to see when you’re driving and difficult just to cross the street or walk on a sidewalk as a pedestrian may have to wait a little longer.

“Often it feels like the roads get cleared at a much more aggressive and rapid pace than the sidewalks and the result of the inaccessibility here, is because of the roads being cleared,” said Rylen Campbell-Stovell, who had just walked across the intersection of Main Street and Assiniboine Avenue.

Early Monday afternoon, a pile of snow from Main Street snow removal operations still partially blocked access to the sidewalk but was cleared away later in the day.

Still, that’s a concern for Campbell-Stovell who works clearing snow and walks from his home downtown to get to his job.

He’d like to see more of a priority put on getting sidewalks cleared faster, especially for people living with a mobility disability.

“It would be nice to see a bit of an equal effort between like the pedestrian and the road side,” Campbell-Stovell said.

Michael Cantor, the City of Winnipeg’s manager of streets maintenance, said while the city aims to clear sidewalks along priority one and two roads within 36 hours of a storm, dealing with consecutive snowfalls has made it a challenge to keep up with clearing some residential sidewalks.

“We get another five to 10 centimetres and go back and start plowing our priority ones and priority twos again, so ending up having some priority threes—residential sidewalks—that haven’t been touched for days,” Cantor said. “It is challenging.”

The latest snowfall has triggered another residential snow clearing operation.

Cantor said the city’s snow disposal sites are between 60 and 70 per cent full but right now just getting it there is the main problem.

“Those multiple events make us obviously plow the streets but also reduce our capacity to keep hauling,” Cantor said. “So we’re trying to do both but obviously it’s not always possible with resources to do both.”

Cantor said if you’re running out of room in your yard, you can haul snow yourself to one of three city snow disposal sites.

The three snow disposal sites that remain open to the public are located at the South End Water Pollution Control Centre, the West End Water Pollution Control Centre and there’s also one on McPhillips Street near the Perimeter Highway.

Cantor said while those three sites are open to the public, most residents just opt to keep piling up the mounds outside their homes, something people have become well accustomed to doing so far this winter.