The results of snow removal operations in Quebec City for the 2021-2022 season were marked by an exceptionally high number of weather cocktails, which made the fight against Mother Nature’s elements more difficult.
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In total, 22 weather cocktails are reported for the season compared to 10 to 15 in recent years.
“The operations were more numerous, the conditions more difficult and the frequency of the showers greater, which sometimes caused discomfort in the population”, recognized Pierre-Luc Lachance, vice-president of the executive committee responsible for maintenance. traffic lanes in the City of Quebec.
Mr. Lachance nevertheless assigns a mark of 75% for all snow removal operations and he recognizes that the process is constantly improving.
In fact, last March, the City received 3,664 complaints and requests for intervention compared to 951 in March 2021.
The changing weather and the late winter gave the snow removal teams a hard time. Quebec received about 300 centimeters of snow on the ground this winter, an average season in this regard.
This precipitation was concentrated in February and March, two months that were also relatively cold. While winter got off to a slow start, snow removal operations increased in late winter, generating many nights of removal and scraping outings in a short time.
Weather cocktails have also had an impact on snow removal costs. For the sectors maintained by force account, the City notably used twice as many tons of abrasive stones as last year, more than 25,000 tons, compared to approximately 12,500 last year. The same goes for sodium chloride, of which more than 20,000 tons were spread compared to more than 14,000 tons the previous season. Added to this is the increase in the cost of fuel, for which there will be an adjustment to contractor contracts, the addition of machinery rental hours, hours for artisan truckers and a greater amount of snow. transported to snow dumps. The impact on the City’s budget will be known later.
Reference-www.journaldequebec.com