What’s Your City’s Plan for Snow & Ice?
Most city plans include:
- Spraying salt brine (an anti-icer) on expressways, hills and bridges before any expected snowfall and when conditions call for it.
- Using salt particles on roads and major highways to reduce slippery conditions. Salt trucks are the first line of defense when the snow starts to fall.
- Plowing snow when accumulation is more than 2.5 cm deep on highways, 5 cm on major roads and transit routes, and 8 cm on residential streets.
Remember, major roads and expressways are cleared of snow sooner and more frequently than residential streets so that more vehicles, including emergency vehicles, can get where they need to be. Residential streets are salted as soon as snow starts to fall and plows are only sent out after the snow reaches 8 cm or more. And, of course, it’s normal and reasonable to accept residential streets to have some snow and ice onthem after city vehicles have treated the roadway.
Tracking Snow Clean-up Online
Not every Canadian city and town has its own snow plow tracker per se, but a lot of them do have some form of letting its residents know the progress of snow removal in the area. In Toronto, residents can use the PlowTO map to check up on streets and sidewalks in their street plow neighbourhood. Montreal has a live tracker app called INFO-Neige MTL Info Neige Mtl available on Google Play and the iOS App Store.
Photo by James Lewis on Unsplashed
Check out our post about Road Salt Can Create a Slippery Slope
