Where does all the snow go?

CTV’s Colton Wiens finds out if there’s enough space to store snow in Kitchener and when it will be cleaned up.

It has been an incredibly busy February for crews from the City of Kitchener after approximately 110 cm of snow fell in less than a month.

Cleanup from the latest storm continued on Friday, almost a week after the flakes first started falling.

“Normally, a snow event includes one full plow. This year, at least three of our six snow events have had back-to-back full plows associated with each snow event,” Roslyn Lusk, Director of Operations, Roads & Traffic with the City of Kitchener, said.

City staff are now busy moving snow from narrow streets and trying to improve sightlines at corners.

“Virtually the entire city has locations where we have to load snow away. That is completely different from any other winter that we have seen,” Lusk said.

Lusk said approximately 100 staff members have been operating 50 vehicles throughout the city and additional dump trucks were brought in to help haul away the mess.

“We can load about 400 trucks a day. So that is about 6,000m³ of snow that we’re loading away in a day from the right of way. To put that in perspective, that is about one CFL football field, including the big end zones covered 2.5ft deep,” Lusk said.

All that snow needs somewhere to go.

Lusk said it’s taken to a massive snow storage and disposal facility off Battler Road. It’s an engineered facility with a pad where the snow can melt. Runoff is monitored, so any salty water can be diverted to the sanitary sewer rather than storm sewers.

The snow on the pad typically reaches 10 feet high in the winter, but as of Friday morning, the heap peaked at 60 ft.

“We have extra excavators that are here that are stacking it up to make sure that we have enough pad space for the amount of snow that still has to come from the right of way,” Lusk said.

Lusk added they won’t be building the pile any higher, but they will keep making space if needed.

“We do have space. We’ve brought in extra resources. As I’ve said, we’ve stacked higher here at the snow storage facility in case we do get more snow. So we’re ready for it. It is what we do,” Lusk said. “We are not in normal operations, so please take your time. Be patient. Take your time. Especially around snowbanks. Drive slow. Watch for pedestrians. Watch for other cars that are backing out of their driveways or turning corners. We are doing our best to remove the snow as quickly as possible, and we’re prioritizing some of those areas.”