City forced to call back inactivated equipment for snowstorm cleanup

680news.com
April 4, 2016

A spring snowstorm caught some Ontario communities by surprise, especially those that were already ramping down their winter operations.

The snowstorm that swept through the GTA and much of southern Ontario Sunday afternoon and into early Monday morning, brought with it a thick blanket of snow.

On average, the GTA gets around five centimetres of snow in April. However, Pearson International Airport had received 13 centimetres of snow by 9 a.m. Monday, according to Environment Canada. Between 11-15 centimetres of snow fell in other areas like Brampton, Burlington and Vaughan.

The storm brought snow plows and salters out of hibernation, in some cases, given the time of year. As a result, the cleanup took a little longer than residents would expect in the middle of winter.

In Toronto, Hector Moreno, manager of road operations for the city’s Transportation Services department, told CityNews salters were out since 5 p.m. Sunday but fewer salters were out clearing the roads.

During the winter months, the city has 200 salters in its snow-clearing arsenal, but that number was scaled down to around 115-120 as of April 1.

Moreno said the city had prepared for the storm since Friday. He said initially, the forecast called for five centimetres of snow, but the accumulation amount changed to 10 centimetres sometime after 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“The city decided to call in some of the equipment, call back some of the contractors,” Moreno said. “They were called back late in the afternoon yesterday, but no, there’s no delays in the activation of the equipment.”

Moreno said it employed 100 per cent of its expressway salters and snowplows, but that amount was reduced to 50 per cent for main and secondary roads. Only 90 per cent of the usual 300 snow plows were out plowing sidewalks at 3 a.m.

While Toronto had scaled back some of its snow-clearing arsenal, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) said its contractors had their salters and snow plows out since 5 p.m. Sunday.

“Even though the contracts (except Simcoe) went into the spring transition period on April 1, given the weekend forecast, ministry staff and the contractors agreed to keep extra equipment available,” MTO spokesperson Patrick Searle said in an email.

As of 6 a.m. Monday, 175 vehicles were out across Peel-Halton, Simcoe, Niagara, Durham, and Toronto.

The snowstorm caused at least 650 crashes on provincial roadways, Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CityNews, including a pileup on Highway 400 north of Toronto involving as many as 40 vehicles. That crash sent nine people to hospital with minor injuries.

In Toronto, police reported more than 100 crashes over a 12-hour period. Typically, there are close to 100 collisions over a 24-hour span.