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City of Maple Ridge spends more than 2,000 hours clearing roads in recent snowstorms

Nearly 25 cm of snow shut down the city on Dec. 20
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The first major snowfall of the season hit Maple Ridge on Nov. 29. (Brandon Tucker/The News)

After a series of massive snowstorms hit the Lower Mainland, shutting down travel and giving Maple Ridge the snowiest Dec. 20 of the 21st century, according to Environment Canada, the City of Maple Ridge has released statistics on how well the city staff responded to the massive quantity of snow seen over the past couple of months.

READ MORE: Snowstorm dumps 25 cm on Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows

According to the City of Maple Ridge, the engineering operations staff spent approximately 2,100 hours clearing snow from the city streets during November and December.

Less than half of this time was during typical office hours, with 1,200 hours occurring during early mornings, late nights, and holidays like Christmas Day.

During the major snowstorms at the end of November and just before Christmas, the city had 14 plows continuously operating, which placed 1,700 tonnes of salt and 250 tonnes of sand on the streets.

Parks, Recreation and Culture staff were also out adding salt to sidewalks, distributing 35 cubic yards of salt around civic facilities and parks.

Clearing the walkways around these public facilities took approximately 300 man-hours.

“We’re always scanning the long-range weather forecasts so we can schedule road maintenance, new construction work, or get ready for extreme weather,” said the city.

The city is currently not expected to receive any new snowfall for the next 10 days.

RELATED: High risk of avalanche around Revelstoke due to recent weather conditions


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Brandon Tucker

About the Author: Brandon Tucker

I have been a journalist since 2013, with much of my career spent covering sports and entertainment stories in Alberta.
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