City crews continue to clear residential streets and sidewalks of snow after a nasty winter storm battered Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area Wednesday, and they’re asking property owners for help.
“Residents can help us out a lot by not pushing that snow back out onto the roadway again,” Peter Noehammer, director of transportation services, told CP24 Thursday afternoon.
“We’re still doing some cleanup,” Noehammer said of the ongoing cleanup efforts. “Obviously, all the major plowing and heavy lifting on the roads has been done. We’ve done one round of sidewalk clearing, as well. We’re out there again tonight and overnight, so we’re basically just in final cleanup mode right now.”
Noehammer also reminded city residents of their responsibility to keep sidewalks in their neighbourhoods free of snow.
“In the inner part of the city, do get out there (and) clear those sidewalks for everyone who lives on the street,” he urged.
So far this season, bylaw officers have provided about 1,500 warnings to residents for failing to remove snow from sidewalks, Noehammer said.
Approximately 60 fines have also been issued at a cost of $125 each.
Similarly, some 675 warning have been issued to city residents over pushing snow from sidewalks and driveways into the street. Roughly 40 fines, at $360 each, have been issued.
Cold temperatures this winter have made storm cleanup for city crews even harder than usual.
“It’s been challenging,” Noehammer said. “The cold temperatures are the story for us this winter. We haven’t had a decent warm spell to thaw some of that snow.”
SRT service resumes
The Scarborough RT is operating Thursday after service was shut down for most of the day Wednesday due to the snow.
However, things didn't go smoothly during the morning commute.
A couple hours after service started, the TTC reported delays due to mechanical problems and it brought in shuttle buses to supplement service.
TTC employees worked through the night to get the aging SRT back up and running. The line was shut down early Wednesday afternoon so workers could clear snow and ice from the track before the afternoon commute.
The closure was supposed to last less than three hours, but service was suspended for the rest of the day.
New snowfall records
The SRT shutdown and hundreds of crashes occurred as southern Ontario was walloped by a storm that set new snowfall records for Feb. 5.
A weather station at Buttonville airport in Markham accumulated 17 centimetres of snow, shattering the old record of 6.2 cm, which was set Feb. 5, 1987.
At Pearson International Airport, 14 cm was reported, eclipsing the old record of 11.6 cm. (Feb. 5, 2011).
Wednesday’s snowfall at Pearson was the most it has received so far this winter, said CP24 meteorologist Chris Potter.
The last time Pearson saw more snow in a single day was Feb. 8, 2013, with 22.4 cm, Potter said.
In one day, Pearson almost received as much snow as it did in all of January, when 14.4 cm fell over 31 days, Potter said.
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