Frequently Asked Questions
1. How is it determined what road or sidewalk is plowed first?
2. Why is it taking so long for crews to plow my street?
3. Why does the plow come down my side of the street first and then come back to put more snow on my side of the street?
4. Why did you plow my street twice during the same storm?
5. Why is there so much noise at night from your operations?
6. As the plow goes by my residence why does my driveway get longer?
7. I live on a corner and I always get more snow from your plows than others on my street.
8. Can I install metal markers to define my property line for snow removal purpose?
9. Why is snow blown onto the boulevard in front of my residence?
10. Why does the city strip ice from the roadway in the winter season and leave large chunks of ice in my driveway?
11. My neighbor across the street pushes snow onto the roadway or across the road onto my side of the street causing the road to build up with ice. Can something be done to prevent this?
12. Why are the snow removal crews working when it is not snowing?
13. The City's snow operations equipment damaged my lawn will it be fixed?
14. Why does the city clear certain roadside ditches of snow in the spring?
15. Whenever you plow my street, you block all the driveway entrances. Is there not some way to avoid leaving snow in driveway entrances, or remove it after the plow has passed?
16. At what point do snow removal crews move into action?
17. Does council give direction to when and how crews deal with snow clearing?
18. What is the priority and deployment strategy?
19. How long does it take to clear the roads of snow?
20. Where does the City of Moncton put the snow?
21. When does the overnight parking ban come in to effect?
22. What is the chance that flooding can occur in the winter?
23. What other ice and snow technologies does city staff use?
24. How can I inform the City of potholes or other road deficiencies?
25. What happens if my mailbox is damaged by the City's snow clearing equipment?
Winter Questions Frequently Asked
1. How is it determined what road or sidewalk is plowed first?
The City of Moncton has a defined Snow Route, which must be maintained during winter operations. This includes all main thoroughfares within the city including streets at police stations, fire stations and hospitals. These routes are used by emergency vehicles to respond to emergencies. Once street plowing operations are underway, the sidewalk plows are dispatched to start on sidewalk cleaning operations with priority given to downtown areas as well as integrated sidewalks, sidewalks on main thoroughfares, hospitals and schools, as per the sidewalk snow plan.
A Snow Removal Committee was formed to review the City’s plan for street and sidewalk snow removal. The committee developed the following criteria to ensure the highest level of snow removal along with the most equitable criteria for snow removal throughout Moncton:
· Both sidewalks on Arterial and Collector Roads will be plowed.
· One sidewalk on local primary roads will be plowed
· Local minor roads are excluded except for those that are grandfathered
· Ensuring connectivity and school zone safety remain important criteria
|
EXAMPLES Arterial Roads |
Collector Roads |
Local Primary Roads |
Local Minor Roads |
|
Mountain |
Hildegard |
Camelot |
Clair Crescent |
|
Morton |
Killam |
North |
Don Crescent |
|
Main |
Evergreen |
Grant |
Franklyn |
Road definitions:
Arterial roads: Roads with the most traffic in the city, these roads typically have traffic volumes over 10 000 vehicles per day. Examples: Mountain Road, Main Street, Assomption, Vaughan Harvey, Morton Ave, Lewisville Rd, Elmwood Dr, McLaughlin, Salisbury.
Collector roads: A roadway which collects traffic and feed it into the arterial roads, these roads essentially connect local streets to primary streets. Collector roads typically have traffic volumes between 2 000 and 10 000 vehicles per day. Examples: Bessborough, Evergreen, Frampton, Hennessey, Glengrove, Kendra, Pleasant, Purdy, Westmont, Worthington, Collishaw, Connaught, Donald, Gordon, Hildegard, Queen, St George
Local primary roads : The main roads in subdivisions, these roads typically have traffic volumes below 2 000 vehicles per day. Examples: Ayer, Barrieau, Bonnacord, Centennial, Churchill, Drummond, Elmhurst, Fairview Knoll, Glenwood, Hopper, Jones, Noel, Queen Mary, Wynwood
Local minor roads: The roads with the least traffic in the city. Road that's typically used to get to one's house within a subdivision, typically traffic volumes are below 500 vehicles per day. As such, this type of road will not be plowed unless grandfathered.
The 1st priority is Arterial Streets, 2nd priority is collector streets and 3rd priority is urban local primary streets.
2. Why is it taking so long for crews to plow my street?
All plows have a starting point. They first must do their respective main thoroughfares and then start plowing their subdivision. It takes each plow close to four hours to do a section. It could be that you are closer to the end of the plow’s section.
3. Why does the plow come down my side of the street first and then come back to put more snow on my side of the street?
One side of the street has to be plowed first depending on where the plow starts. Your side could be first as all operators will find a pattern that is the most effective for plowing an area . On some of the narrower streets, the plow width may be more than one half of the street.
4. Why did you plow my street twice during the same storm?
Depending on the length and severity of a snowstorm, a street could be plowed several times after the initial pass. More snow could have fallen, or it could be a simple clean-up of areas where cars or other obstructions had prevented proper clean-up initially.
5. Why is there so much noise at night from your operations?
Our biggest noisemaker at night is our backup alarms on the equipment. These alarms are for safety reasons and cannot be unhooked. Other noises from the equipment are due to the horsepower needed to complete the task at hand. We try and reduce this by hauling snow in the downtown area at night and doing the same in residential areas during the day.
6. As the plow goes by my residence why does my driveway get longer?
As crews are plowing the streets, they attempt to push the snow back to the curb. As we get more snow, the banks get higher; the plows cannot throw the snow over the top of the existing bank. So, the snow slides down the bank making the snow banks wider at the bottom, creating longer driveways.
7. I live on a corner and I always get more snow from your plows than others on my street.
There is more open road surface at an intersection than on a straight stretch of street. Therefore, while cleaning an intersection, more snow will be collected and pushed to the side of the street.
8. Can I install metal markers to define my property line for snow removal purpose?
Metal T-bars may be placed at the back edge of the sidewalk about 2”– 4” from the edge. Using metal T-bars is not recommended on full-face curbs but could be used in subdivisions that have mountable or butterfly curbs.
9. Why is snow blown onto the boulevard in front of my residence?
When operations require streets to be widened to make room for more snow storage, it may be necessary to blow some of the snow on the boulevard. This is done to better manage the snow hauling process.
10. Why does the city strip ice from the roadway in the winter season and leave large chunks of ice in my driveway?
Ice cutting is done in the winter season when water run-off from properties runs onto the roadway and freezes, creating a hazard for drivers. A crew is sent to the location to do the ice cutting. While we try not to leave large chunks of ice in driveways during ice cutting operations, a piece could be missed during clean up.
11. My neighbor across the street pushes snow onto the roadway or across the road onto my side of the street causing the road to build up with ice. Can something be done to prevent this?
The City of Moncton has a by-law stating that no one can push or place snow onto the roadway or sidewalk. This can be reported to the City of Moncton operations center at 859-2643 and someone will investigate.
12. Why are the snow removal crews working when it is not snowing?
Clean up crews work between storms to haul and widen streets in preparation for upcoming storms.
13. The city’s snow operations equipment damaged my lawn will it be fixed?
During snow clearing events, lawns and boulevards are sometimes damaged. If damage occurs, a report needs to be sent to the City of Moncton operations center (859-2643). The location where the damage occurred will be placed on our list for spring repairs.
14. Why does the city clear certain roadside ditches of snow in the spring?
The snow in the ditches is only removed when flooding occurs, which may be the result of frozen culverts. The ditch may need to be cleaned to restore proper water flow. In most situations, the water will carve a path under the snow in the ditch and allow for the natural runoff.
15. Whenever you plow my street, you block all the driveway entrances. Is there not some way to avoid leaving snow in driveway entrances, or remove it after the plow has passed?
When plowing snow, the snow is pushed to the right hand side of the roadway to the curb or ditch as not to impede traffic flow. The cost and manpower it would take to clean all driveways within the City of Moncton would be prohibitive.
16. At what point do snow removal crews move into action?
When streets become slippery, our ten salt truck are dispatched to spread salt over the entire city which is divided into ten salt zones. Once this operation starts, crews are dispatched to their designated areas to start salting the main routes, followed by residential areas. When sufficient amount of snow has fallen to warrant plowing of streets city, plows and contractors equipment are called to begin clearing of streets.
This operation requires seven City plow trucks, four City graders and five City loaders , plus 26 pieces of private equipment consisting of three graders and 23 loaders with plow and wing. There are also three private plow trucks for a total 45 pieces of plow equipment used to plow city streets.
Crews strive to plow all streets to their travelled width within 8 hours of storm end. A couple of hours after the street plows have been working, our 13 sidewalk plows start clearing sidewalks. In the downtown, main city arteries, areas around schools and hospitals as a first priority. This operation will continue until the snow event is over and the streets are clear.
17. Does council give direction to when and how crews deal with snow clearing?
Council does not normally get involved in day-to-day snow operations, although council approves all snow route plans and sidewalk plow maps before the winter season. Council also approves all hired equipment rates for each season. During the actual snow event, councilors receive concerns or request from the public in which case they pass them on to the appropriate department for investigation.
18. What is the priority and deployment strategy?
As snow flurries begin, salting begins, starting with the city snow routes followed by subdivisions and side streets. After an accumulation of five to ten centimeters, the street plows will be called in to commence plowing. The snow route is completed first, followed by all other streets within each plowing zone. The eleven sidewalk plows will be called a couple of hours later and they will start their zones, which include: schools, hospitals and main streets. They will then complete the sidewalks in their respective zone.
19. How long does it take to clear the roads of snow?
It takes three to four hours too plow a zone and, depending on the severity of the storm, it could take a little longer. Crews strive to plow all streets to their travelled width within 8 hours of storm end. With a normal snow event of fifteen centimeters or less, all roads should be plowed once and some of the first streets that were plowed should be cleaned a second time. After the plowing is completed, some additional salting may be required to clean a few remaining spots.
20. Where does the City of Moncton put the snow?
The City of Moncton operates three snow dumps: the first is at the old landfill at the causeway traffic circle. This dump is used exclusively for snow being hauled from city parking lots, bus shelters and city streets. The second snow dump is located at the back of the Moncton Coliseum parking lot and is used only for snow that falls in the Coliseum parking lot; snow from city streets is not hauled to this location. The third snow dump is located on Harrisville Boulevard beside the Trans Canada Highway. This dump is used for some snow from city streets as well as private lots within the City of Moncton providing they have a permit that allows them to dump at this location. Permits may be purchased at City Hall.
21. When does the overnight parking ban come in to effect?
The overnight parking ban comes into effect on December 1st and remains in effect until April 15th from Midnight until 7:00 am. This ban also affects city- owned parking lots unless you have a monthly parking permit.
22. What is the chance that flooding can occur in the winter?
Flooding does occur during the winter months. Street drains do get buried under snow and ice. When mild weather is forecasted, crews are dispatched to open basins in areas that are prone to flooding.
23. What other ice and snow technologies does city staff use?
The snow removal business has not changed a great deal over the years. However, today we have better and stronger equipment to deal with winter conditions, better tires for added traction and more user-friendly controls for operator comfort, which translates into less operator fatigue.
We now use pre-wetting: this involves spraying a salt brine solution to pre wet the salt before it hits the road. This helps keep the salt on the road and improves our reaction time.
We also use an anti-icing technique where we spray the road surface the day before a storm event with a solution of salt brine. This then dries on the road surface only to be activated once the snow starts to fall and comes into contact with the road surface. This helps speed up our reaction time while our crews are getting prepared to start their salting areas.
Another improvement we’ve made relates to weather forecasting. Today, we use a Road Weather Information System (RWIS). This is a weather system that is imbedded in the asphalt on the T.C.H. at Magnetic Hill that gives us a good indication of what we are in store for during a storm event.
Our fleet of salt trucks is equipped with automatic salt controls that give us a better control of the salt being applied to the road surface. We also have temperature sensors on each vehicle that provide us with road and air temperature readings that help us decide the amount of salt or sand to be used on the road surface.
24. How can I inform the City of potholes or other road deficiencies?
All inquiries, complaints or concerns may be made to the City of Moncton Operation center located at 100 Worthington Avenue, which is across from the Coliseum parking lot. The 24-hour line is 859-2643.
25. What happens if my mailbox is damaged by the City’s snow clearing equipment?
All efforts are made to not damage mailboxes. If a mailbox is damaged, it is the responsibility of the owner to do any necessary repairs. Most damaged boxes are from the weight of the snow coming off the plow and knocking the box down. With wet snow, we see more of this happening. One way to reduce damage is to have your mail box hanging from an arm with a couple of small chains. This will allow the box some movement, which will reduce or even stop damage.