Saskatoon’s residential snow removal program to be completed by mid-January

Saskatoon snow removal crews who have been scouring, scraping and trucking away snow from November’s huge storm should complete their work by the middle of January.

That’s according to Saskatoon roadways maintenance and support director Goran Saric.

It’s at least two weeks earlier than previous estimates, which had residential snow removal completed by the end of January or even later.

Saric says a combination of factors — including warmer, milder weather and 17 crews on rotating schedules 24 hours a day — is the reason why crews will be done sooner. So far, about 70 per cent of Saskatoon neighbourhoods have been completed.

“The warmer weather has helped,” Saric says. “Likely, with the densification of snow, we can load more snow into the trucks. So essentially, the volume of snow has decreased a little bit, so that’s helping.

(Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

“And also with the warm weather, we’re not looking at ice-covered snow piles, so our crews and equipment (are) more efficient. And also working in warmer temperatures, it’s easier on our equipment.”

It’s not going to come cheap, though. The cost of cleaning up from the November snowstorm — which includes initial clearing efforts, sanding and grading streets — along with the residential snow removal program will come in way over the previous estimates of $14.5 million to $15 million.

“The total cost of the snowstorm cleanup will likely be closer to $18.5 million, which is our current estimate,” he says. “Again, (that’s) split between 2020 and 2021 budgets.”

That’s about $3.5 million more than was indicated in the November 2020 Snowstorm Response Financial Forecast update.

The amount of snow collected so far and what crews are estimated to collect is enormous.

Saric says city officials believe there will be at least one million cubic metres of snow collected. That’s about 54,000 dump truckloads of snow altogether. The final results won’t be available for a few weeks yet, though.

“For now, we are fairly confident that it will be at least a million cubic metres of snow hauled to the three snow dump sites. Potentially (it’ll be) even more than that,” he explains.

Over the next 10 days while crews continue clearing and taking away the snow, Saric asks that residents keep an eye out for signage indicating crews will be in the area and to move their vehicles as necessary.

While cars may be towed, people won’t have to pay any tickets.