90,000 cubic metres of snow removed from Ottawa roads and sidewalks as cleanup continues

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Volume of snow slows down city crews

Snow cleanup continues

The big dig is underway to remove snowbanks off roads and sidewalks across the City of Ottawa, but officials warn the cleanup is taking longer due to the “sheer volume” of snow.

Ottawa received nearly 70 centimetres of snow during two major storms between Feb. 12 and Feb. 16, and 95.6 cm of snow has fallen across Ottawa so far in February.

Crews have begun snow removal operations in neighbourhoods across Ottawa, but the city says the “cleaup will take weeks.”

“We’re still in the initial phases of it; we’re only a couple of nights in,” Bryden Denyes, area roads manager for the City of Ottawa, told CTV Morning Live Friday.

“The challenge we’re having is the sheer volume of snow is taking us longer to get through a street than we normally would see.”

• Snow clearing expected to take weeks as storm cleanup continues

Since Monday night, crews have cleared more than 90,000 cubic metres of snow from roads and sidewalks, according to the city.

“That is enough snow to fit into the Aberdeen Pavilion, and then some,” the city said on X Friday afternoon. “Cleanup will take weeks, but our crews will be working 24/7 until the work is done.”

More than 300 semi-trailers and 900 dump trucks are helping to haul the snow to six storage facilities across the city.

Residents have complained about the giant snowbanks blocking sidewalks and intersections, particularly in the downtown core. One resident told CTV News Ottawa they are “trapped with zero access at the street corners” following the storms.

Coun. Shawn Menard said on social media that city crews required 100 dump truck loads to remove snow from Sunnyside Avenue.

“These were not normal amounts of snow the city received and many areas are not meeting standards. That will take a lot of time. Please be patient,” Menard said on X.

Denyes says the city has 20 to 25 different crews clearing snow during the day, with another 30 crews each night doing snow removal.

“We’re still running 24/7,” Denyes said. “Residents are starting to see a difference, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

The snow removal sees crews physically remove snow from roads and sidewalks and transport it to one of the city’s snow storage facilities.

Denyes says supervisors will check all city streets to determine where snow removal operations should focus on first.

“There are streets, like mains, we can only do during the nighttime and, typically, residential streets during the daytime so there is a process that they go through to try and pick it out,” Denyes said.

“Our main goal is to really look at the ones that have the most encroachment of snow, really focus on those and build our program out from there.”

Denyes tells CTV News Ottawa the city will continue to focus on main roads at night and residential streets during the day.

“The process for our supervisors to pick which ones we’re doing, they have to look at what state those are in,” Denyes said. “So they’re doing site visits. They’re checking what areas have more snow storage capacity than others.”

Residents are looking forward to having the snowbanks removed from streets.

“It’ll be nice to have the street wider,” Adrian Morrison said.

Coloured temporary no-parking signs will be placed on streets to inform motorists of the plans to remove snowbanks. Yellow signs indicate no parking between 7 a.m. and 7p.m., red signs indicate removal between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., and green signs in business areas indicate snow removal plans.

Tickets for violating no-parking rules

Bylaw Services officers have issued 47 tickets to vehicles parked illegally in temporary no-parking zones during the snow removal operations.

The temporary no-parking signs have been placed on roads across the city since Monday to allow crews to remove snow from the streets.

The fine for violating the no-parking rules is $125 and the vehicle is towed to a nearby street.

“We recognize parking has been challenging through the Significant Weather Event this week,” Roger Chapman, Director of Bylaw and Regulatory Services,” told CTV News Ottawa.

“Bylaw and Regulatory Services would like to thank motorists for their cooperation during snow removal operations and would like to remind them to move their vehicles when temporary signage for snow removal is posted on their street. Residential on-street parking permit holders and Accessible Parking Permit holders are not exempt during snow removal operations and are subject to ticketing and towing.”

Sidewalks

The City of Ottawa says its crews also continue to focus on sidewalks following the storms, with the sidewalk network remaining “snow packed.”

“Problem spots have been identified in some areas of the city,” staff said in a post on the City of Ottawa’s website.

“Crews continue to use blowers to widen and clean up the sidewalks and are beginning to transition to a blade attachment to plow/scrape the remaining snow. They are also applying materials to help restore them; however, multiple passes will be required, as they currently do not meet the City’s Maintenance Quality Standards.”

Crews also continue to clean up bus stops, crosswalks, intersections and corners following the storm.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Peter Szperling