These streets were made for walkin': St. John's mayor says clearing sidewalks a challenge
School zones are No. 1 priority, but it can take six to seven days to complete a route, says Danny Breen
St. John's does have sidewalks, but nearly two days after a snowstorm dumped more than 30 centimetres of snow on the city, many of them are nowhere to be found.
Monday morning brought the beginning of the work week commute, with pedestrians on some streets forced to walk on the road as cars and trucks whizzed by.
"There's no sidewalk at all, really," said Jacob Hearty on Monday as he walked along Prince of Wales Street. "I see cars slow down and kinda swerve the other way to avoid me. It's kind of annoying, honestly."
St. John's Mayor Danny Breen defended the city's snowclearing efforts in light of how much snow fell on Saturday.
"They did a great job, considering what we had. We had high winds that came up after we had about 30 centimetres of snow, and it was quite challenging for them, and they responded very well," he said.
Sidewalks have been particularly challenging, he acknowledged.
"This morning, we had the school zones which is our first priority," he said. "The area of about 3-400 metres in front of every school, we managed to get them cleared out. Now we're beginning on our sidewalk-clearing routes, so we're working on them [Monday]," he said.
Can take six to seven days for a full route
"It can take up to six, seven days to do a complete route," he said. "And of course, if you have more snow, you have to go back to the school zones and start again, so it is a very time-consuming effort, and given this type of snow was extremely difficult. It's very heavy and slows down the equipment."
Breen said the city frequently tweaks snowclearing operations to improve things, such as starting a day shift earlier; crews start work at 4 a.m.
"We've been able to modify our shifts so that we can get more work done," he said. "It's challenging because of the space for snow storage. We have to clean the roads, we have to do the sidewalks. So we're looking at different ways of making it work, and we'll continue to look at further improvements into the future."