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Another 2-week wait before branches are picked up in Montreal

Click to play video: 'Montreal branch cleanup continues weeks after ice storm'
Montreal branch cleanup continues weeks after ice storm
WATCH: Three weeks have passed since the early-April ice storm and many streets in Montreal are still littered with fallen branches. As Global's Brayden Jagger Haines reports, the city says it will be at least two more weeks until all the debris is cleared and even longer for urban parks. – Apr 27, 2023

Stacked along the streets, blocking bike paths and parking spaces, Montrealers will have to wait at least another two weeks before the piles of branches are all picked up.

According to the city, 80 per cent of the clearing operation has been completed in the majority of the boroughs after a major ice storm wreaked havoc on the city early this month.

The remaining 20 per cent of work in the hardest-hit areas will take weeks to clean up.

Clearing the parks will take the longest, with the wait expected to be close to a month.

The cleanup is the responsibility of each individual borough.

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Workers shred the smaller branches, transforming them into wood chips destined to be mulch for the city’s parks or turned into pressboard. Larger tree trunks are cut into pieces but can only be moved by heavy machinery, slowing down the work.

The city says it is looking to get its hands on more equipment and manpower in the coming days to speed up the operation.

In the last tally by the city, officials recorded more than 920 reports of fallen trees and 4,560 requests for broken branches.

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