City hopes green grit will solve Montreal's snow removal woes

Several Montreal boroughs are trying out a new kind of environmentally friendly grit on their road surfaces that officials hope could improve the snow removal process in what has been a particularly challenging winter.

The product, made of magnesium chloride, is supposed to be better for the environment and less corrosive than traditional salt mixes.

But city officials are also interested in another feature of ClearLane, manufactured by the U.S. company Cargill: its effectiveness at cold temperatures, a property that could speed up efforts to clear away ice and snow.

The borough of Côte-St-Luc has already started experimenting with the product while the city plans to introduce it into the east-end boroughs of Rivières-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles and Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve within a few weeks.

"It's a matter of what's better for the environment," said David Tordjman, the official in charge of snow removal in Côte-St-Luc. "Using less salt, obviously. Less product on your streets is less corrosive for the vehicles ... and [for] our infrastructure. It's better."

Instead of being made of sodium chloride, as is the case with regular road salt, ClearLane contains magnesium chloride, which causes less damage to plant life and can melt ice at colder temperatures.

The product also contains triethanolamine, a chemical that reduces metal corrosion.

It also costs 20 per cent more than regular road salt.

Montreal got interested in the product after seeing how it worked in Burlington, Vt.

Burlington assistant director of public works Bill Paquette said his city got hit with the same storm as Montreal on Wednesday.

But unlike Montreal, where many sidewalks and roads remain to be cleared, Burlington has finished its clean-up.

"We had [24 centimetres] of snow [Wednesday], and our sidewalks are bare today. They're down to the cement," Paquette said.

More snow crews stop work after reaching overtime limit

The past two years have been difficult ones for Montreal when it comes to snow removal because of fluctuating weather conditions and labour issues.

On Friday, all civic snow removal crews in the downtown borough of Ville-Marie took the day off because they had already exceeded their maximum hours for the week.

'This is very lousy because people are not able to pass. The taxi drivers are not able to stop.' —Sam Moutsios, downtown merchant

According to the union, the drivers must have a day off after they have worked 70 hours over the course of a week.

The drivers reached that threshold Thursday night.

"This is very lousy because people are not able to pass," said Sam Moutsios, who was shovelling snow outside his downtown bar on Friday morning. "The taxi drivers are not able to stop. This is ridiculous from the city."

Ville-Marie city councillor Karim Boulos said the crews will be back in action tomorrow, with roads expected to be clear by Sunday.

"At that point, the clock resets because all of the crews take a break, and then we begin again," said Boulos. "So, if it snows again on Tuesday, we start from zero."

Private contractors who clear the roads in the east-end of the downtown borough did not take the day off.

Earlier this week, 600 blue collar workers parked their plows after the city forgot to pay them their overtime for December.

The protest left seven boroughs without any snow removal for several hours until the union and city reached a deal before the essential services council.