There’s a secret sauce to keeping the roads clear in the midst of a blizzard, according to Rick Williams, a snowplow operator in the streets department for the City of Port Coquitlam.
Global News had the opportunity to ride shotgun with Williams as he cleared the way for commuters and emergency vehicles on Wednesday morning.
“We have this list of priority routes that we maintain during events. As soon as the snow stops falling we can spread out and sort of attack all the other streets as we get to them,” he explained.
“We got a lot of product down, so it’s starting to work, starting to do its magic. We’re definitely a little bit behind the eight ball, we had a couple of problems this morning.”
Up to 30 cm of snow was forecast for Metro Vancouver on Wednesday, with 25 cm having fallen in some places by around 4 p.m. The conditions led to lengthy transit delays, countless vehicle accidents and road closures as drivers attempted their regular commutes.
“It’s not the snow, it’s the other drivers,” Williams said, explaining that on a priority road like Citadel Drive — a major bus, ambulance and fire truck route — a snowplow will try to make two passes in each direction.
“Try to widen it out as much as possible, curb to curb if we can … wherever possible as well, we adjust the plow and try not to leave a wind roll in front of driveways.”
The idea is to let the centre yellow line guide you, Williams added.
“You know where it is and work your way out and put product down to get everything working. We’re starting to put salt down to get it melting out from the crown of the road to the outsides.”
He passed a TransLink bus with its emergency lights on, whose driver was calling in to say he was stuck. He also passed a number of folks enjoying a toboggan on the sidewalk.
Tom Madigan, a section manager for Port Coquitlam’s public works department, said there are three priority levels for street-clearing. The first is main arterial roadways, the second is residential and the third are smaller cul-de-sacs and lanes.
“Those are the very last outlets which sort of feed into your Priority 2s, which eventually go into your Priority 1s,” he explained, echoing Williams’ comments that operators will try to avoid snow pileups on driveways as much as possible.
“When you’re clearing your snow, push your snow onto the boulevard, put it onto the grass area,” Madigan advised to anyone wanting to lend a helping hand.
“It’s not going to do any damage to the grass, it gets it off the roadway and it keeps your area clean and it also keeps the street clean. This is really important because as we start to have the melt, if there’s any freezing weather, this is going to prevent any type of ice buildup (on catch basins).”
Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West the city had “all hands on deck” Wednesday, and from 10 p.m. on Tuesday night.
“This is the huge priority of ours. This is the type of thing that people actually send their tax dollars to city hall for,” he told Global News. “This is a core municipal responsibility … nobody should be surprised that this was coming.”
Nicole Petriska, a municipal worker who clearing walkways on Wednesday, said more than 30 people were deployed to do that job alone. She encouraged folks to stick to the main roads in blustery conditions, as they’ll be cleared first.
— with files from Allan Coen