West Island residents continue to struggle with excessive ice

There are holes in ice on Medley Street in Dollard-des-Ormeaux that are deeper than many potholes.

“Between 8 and 10 inches deep,” claims Lisa Legault who lives in front of the deepest set. “We’ve had cars that are getting stuck in the holes and they had to get a tow truck with chains to get them out yesterday. Six cars yesterday got stuck and the neighbours were pushing them out.”

Despite de-icing operations over the last week especially, several streets in the West Island are still coated with several inches of ice, making it hard for pedestrians and drivers alike to get around.

Residents say they just can’t understand what’s taking so long and they’re losing patience.

“It’s horrible,” said Nadine Plotkin, who also lives on Medley. “Horrible, horrible.”

Some places like Beaconsfield, Kirkland and Pointe-Claire are using icebreakers to tackle the problem. But even with that, municipal and borough authorities say ice removal remains a challenge because the ice is so thick.

“The ice is hard rock, and very hard to break, and very hard for the equipment,” Beaconsfield Public Works director Marie-Claude Desrochers told Global News on Thursday.  She was expecting to complete ice-removal operations on Saturday, but on Monday morning, crews were still at it.

Still, officials say they are making some headway.

In Pointe-Claire, city spokesperson Marie-Pier Paquette-Séguin says all the streets in the municipality have had snow and ice-removal crews pass at least once and if necessary, they will go over them again.

This week for March break, workers will focus on streets in school zones.

In Kirkland, authorities expect to be finished by Tuesday.  According to Mayor Michel Gibson, 85 per cent of all streets were cleared by Monday morning.

Medley Street residents can’t wait to get theirs done.

“I would say if they go around and see where it’s worse, and do those first,” Plotkin says.

They hope there won’t be another storm before all the ice is finally cleared away.