Charlottetown man says snowplow spray is damaging his house, fence

While most Islanders are relieved to see snowplows clearing roads after a big snowfall, the plows are not a welcome sight for Daniel Gallant.

Gallant says his home and yard which border busy Riverside Drive, part of the bypass highway around Charlottetown, have sustained damage caused by the plows since he bought the house eight years ago.  

"It's been issues with the plow here pushing snow up over the fence and into our house, onto our property," said Gallant.

"It's even landed up on the roof this week here now, and I'm talking ice clumps three to five inches in diameter."

"The vinyl siding was replaced, the clock's been knocked off the wall numerous times, there's been lights damaged here on the deck, and the building, like it's just continual," he said.

The issue isn't just the snow, ice and stones flying into his home and yard, Gallant said — the runoff from the highway and the snow packed against the fence are also rotting the boards and rusting the nails, as well as flooding his property.

Safety concern

Gallant said he didn't know about the issues when he bought the house, but now sees it as a safety issue. 

"The wife has six grandchildren here ... and we've had incidents where the plow's coming across, the kids have barely made it to the cover of the house without getting showered by the snow and ice," he said.

Gallant wants the problem fixed and for the snow and ice to stay on the highway side of the fence, whether that requires putting up a higher fence or wall or using a different plow.

The province knows about Gallant's concerns and officials say they're working on the problem. 

"Unfortunately for this area we need to stick to that tandem plow," Stephen Szwarc, director of highway maintenance with the province, told CBC News.

I think someone could be killed the way it's going.— Daniel Gallant

"That is the best piece of machinery that we have out there that can keep going. Once you're getting into smaller machinery, they cannot go as fast, they can't move as much material, so it takes a longer time for them to get around."

Szwarc said the plows are only traveling 50 to 60 km/h, which prevent excess spray off the wings of the tandem plow, even though the speed limit on Riverside Drive is higher than that.

He said they also monitor the speeds of the drivers using a global positioning system. 

"Usually when we find that there is a complaint that a plow was speeding and sending the slush, we'll go in and check the GPS, and every time that I've checked it we've seen that the plow was actually driving within the limits or below," said Szwarc.

Better fencing a possibility

Szwarc said the drivers know when they're in close proximity to a house and they will try to slow down as much as possible, while also keeping an eye on the other vehicles on the road.

Szwarc has seen Gallant's property and said they handle complaints like his on a case-by-case basis. 

"We've had staff that are in talks. We are going to look at options where we're talking to a company that does fencing just to see if there is options that we can do to help them out," he said.

In the meantime, Gallant said he's worried. 

"I think someone could be killed the way it's going."

The province said anyone who has issues or is feeling that they're being affected can call its dispatch offices.

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