Montreal In Pictures

December 19 2012

On the way for my morning dose of caffeine I passed a convoy of snow removal trucks lined up on Sherbrooke street and thought I should try to capture some snow removal action.

Not having my camera with me, I had to return home first and then head out trying to find some snow clearing teams in action. Not that easy. I ended walking around the Plateau, listening for the tell-tale signs of the car removal sirens that warn motorists to move their cars from streets about to be plowed or have their car towed and be fined (on average 165$).

In the end I came across some crews working their way along rue saint Denis.

Snow removal – Montreal style
ISO 200 – 22mm – f4 – 1/90 sec

Here are some interesting statistics regarding snow clearance in Montreal:

The average annual snowfall is 215cm

After a reasonable snow storm (I believe we received about 10cm yesterday), it can take about 3-5 days to remove the snow from the 10,000 km of streets and sidewalks in Montreal.

The City’s snow clearance unit comprises 3,000 employees and 2,200 blowers, graders, sidewalk tractors, front-end loaders, pick-up trucks, snow dump trucks.

The City of Montreal has an annual snow removal budget of $150 million.

During a snow removal operation, trucks take snow to one of 29 disposal sites located around the Island.

The average volume of snow taken to disposal sites per year is 13 million m³ – 325,000 truckloads !

Even after living through 13 Montreal winters, I’m still fascinated by the snow removal process here…maybe due to the fact I come from England where 1cm of snow brings traffic chaos.

Snow removal – Montreal style
ISO 100 – 30mm – f4.2 – 1/250 sec

Snow clearing warning sign
ISO 400 – 20mm – f5.6 – 1/125 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sidewalk tractor
ISO 400 – 19mm – f5.6 – 1/250 sec

Snow clearing on Le Plateau
ISO 400 – 11.5mm – f4.2 – 1/350 sec

Snow clearing on Le Plateau
ISO 400 – 70mm – f4.5 – 1/250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I spotted on rue saint Denis groups of workers in blue jackets armed with shovels, it appears saint Denis has their own little army of snow removers. I have to say they were doing a great job.