Kitchener plows hard at work following snowstorm

The snow has fallen for majority of the day and will continue until later this evening. The extension of the declared snow event will give snowplows more time to get all roads cleared up. 

According to Scott Berry, the City of Kitchener's snowplow operators had been preparing for the snow event days in advance. Berry is the manager for maintenance operations with the city and appeared on Kitchener Today with Brian Bourke on CityNews 570 on Monday. 

“The day preceding the storm, we're anti-icing if necessary and going through all the equipment,” said Berry. “The operators are out looking at their trucks and checking blades so that we're ready to roll when the snow arrives.”

Kitchener has 24/7 coverage all winter and staff are always available to plow overnight if necessary. 

“As soon as the snow started at about midnight, we had trucks on the road. Another 18 came in at around 3 a.m and then they were supplemented again at 7 a.m,” Berry said. 

He also explained that roads are categorized into three main priorities. The first two are for main roads, which are regional roads, anything Grand River Transit travels on, steep hills and sharp bends. 

“All first and second priority roads are on our salt routes and they're maintained on a regular basis,” added Berry. “We will keep maintaining those higher priority roads as long as necessary to make sure the city keeps moving and so emergency vehicles can get to where they need to.”

Once those roads are done, priority three roads will be plowed, which includes lower-volume residential streets. Berry adds that patience is key when waiting for residential streets to be plowed. He also reminded that the most important thing is that the roads are cleared of cars.

“Even though it's a snow event and bylaw officers are out towing cars on the road, we'll still have significant impacts to service because of parked cars,” said Berry. 

If a plow operator does not feel safe fitting through an area because of cars in the way, they will try again later. Depending on where they are in their shifts, these parked cars could result in the road being plowed an entire day later. 

Berry said it is probably going to be tomorrow afternoon before all priority three roadways are cleared. He added that although not all workers are out plowing today, everybody is staying busy. 

“We're set up to load the city very quickly to maintain bike lanes and ensure lanes are at the right widths. So there is a lot of action that goes into that 24-48 hours after a given snow event.”