Snow removal Canadian style!

[Fi-Q]

I would think most of canada major city are like this.

And average snow fall of 20 cm cost 17 M$ for montreal.
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=8397,94629632&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

And sometime it takes days before the road & sidewalk are clear . So happy not to leave in a major city.....

 

[JJZ 109]

They been doing this in my town for as far as I can remember. Population 5,000. Actually, this is going on in about every city and town that I know in the Atlantic provinces including the province of Quebec.

Same here in a nearby small city of about 30,000. Been going on since at least the 50's. Maybe earlier than that. My father worked on one of the crews in the early 60's.

 

[tcartwri]

In Montreal where street parking is at a premium and the norm, they have fleets of towtrucks that come through first and move everyones car over one or two blocks. Then the blowers come through...

 

[UpNorth1]

Same operation is done here...

 

[herringchoker]

City has been doing that here for years. When I had a dump truck I used to hire it out to the city - got paid by the hour, rate depended on the volume of the dump box (therefore sideboards as high as the blower could handle). Usually, but not always, done at night. I spent many cold nights doing that over the years. Great fun, especially when snow froze in the box. Some guys had heated boxes, snow would stick in their boxes and not in unheated boxes on some nights, and vice versa on other nights. Some guys would throw salt in the box, but if the air temperature was wrong, that just re-froze and made a bigger mess later. I found that if banging the tailgate didn't do it, it was just as easy in the long run to use the shovel. The last truck I had was the Freightliner in my avatar - sold it 10 years ago. Don't miss doing that job.

 

[ericher69]

http://youtu.be/BPzMCy533ps

This video is from the US but same technique is used in Montreal Canada

 

[CNC Dan]

What's the alternative?

In Boston they resorted to melting it.
Must have cost a fortune.

 

[Dmace]

What's the alternative?

Around here they load the piles into large trucks with front end loaders, not nearly as fast but also this only works well for stretches of straight road. Parking lots and alleys would be more difficult.

 

[Scooby074]

Yeah the snowblower pickup is pretty much standard wherever there is heavy snow, both in NA and Europe.

The snowblower is a Canadian invention however. Arthur Sicard invented it in 1925. His company is still in business. Nothing sounds like a screaming detroit working hard!

 

[Scooby074]

Many of these old school, single purpose snowblowers are slowly being replaced with self powered snowblower attachments that go on the front of larger loaders and other carriers Like this Larue blower on a Volvo