Ontario snow storage facilities struggle to keep up amid snowfall surge

Ontario’s snow storage facilities are feeling the strain as this winter’s record-breaking snowfalls continue to put infrastructure to the test.

With cities still cleaning up after back-to-back snowstorms, regions like the city of Waterloo are being pushed to their limits, with crews working overtime, stretching resources and raising concerns about how to handle future snowstorms.

Currently, Waterloo’s snow storage capacity is over 60 per cent, with 30,000 cubic metres of snow already hauled away to designated sites, said Bob Henderson, the city’s transportation services director.

Despite these efforts, there is still lots of snow left to be cleared and transported to storage facilities, which are quickly filling up, he added.

“The volume of snow received this season was unprecedented,” Henderson told Global News.

“The city is responding by utilizing all available resources, internal and contracted, 24-7.”

City officials are already assessing the need for more snow storage facilities in case the city faces the possibility of additional snowstorms in the coming weeks.

“If another significant snowstorm were to occur, we would need to re-evaluate our capacity and look for other options,” a city spokesperson added.

The municipality is preparing contingency plans to ensure that snow removal continues smoothly, but the volume of snowfall presented this year has become a growing concern for future winter weather operations.

The situation is not unique to Waterloo.

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The City of Toronto, which projected the majority of snow that fell last month would be cleared within three weeks, is now approaching that deadline — and still has significant work left to do.

As of Wednesday, the city has removed 13,999 loads over a seven-day period.

“Snow removal operations of this scale are not typical,” said Barbara Gray, the city’s general manager for transportation services.

With five snow storage facilities and 450 dump trucks assigned to transport snow, the city is working around the clock to finish the job.

“Snow removal is a pretty slow-moving operation. It requires our crews to collect the snow and move them to designated storage sites, which will take up to three weeks,” Gray said.

While some progress has been made, there are still more roads left to be done.

With winter storms continuing to drop heavy snow across the region, Toronto’s snow storage operations are under more pressure than ever.

“We haven’t seen a situation like this since January 2022,” Gray said in a press conference last week.

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