CLEARING THE SNOW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23884, 11 August 1939, Page 6

CLEARING THE SNOW

WORK OF COUNCIL STAFF COST OF NEARLY £ISOO TO CITY ENGINEER'S REPORT That the City Council was put to an expenditure of pearly. £ 1500 in clearing the snow from the streets last month is revealed in a report by the city engineer (Mr S. G. Secular), who gives a detailed account, of the snowstorm and the steps taken by the council staff to deal with the tremendous quantities of snow in the city. The total snowfall may be set down at 15 inches, the report and the policy immediately pul into operation was to open up for traffic all streets in order of importance, working from the centre of the city. outwards. First attention was given to. clearing tram routes. '■ Employment of Subsidised men The report deals with the decision not to employ scheme 13 men. To have organised, equipped, an| employed scheme 13 men for snow removal , would have meant interfering with the organisation to provide supervisors, ahd : the', purchase of shovels and gum boots., .“ 1 was informed that squarerinouthed shovels .were not available in sufficient - numbers,” ,Mr Secular states.. "Roundmouthed shovels would have cost about.£3s per 100 mgn■■ These would require to have been delivered and branded. T was informed that sufficient, gum boots were npt readily available on, the local market,. It is doubtful if the tools wnuldhave been available under 3,0 hours—that is. scheme 13 men using unbranded' tools could have been employed on Friday, by which date practically all scheme 13 jobs were re-opened.” •. . In employing extra men on carting snow from streets, it may be noted that 1,500,000 to 2.000.000 .cubic yards of snow lay-on city, streets. In the early stages, snow was carted away only from important intersections, such as the Stock .Exchange, and from taam stops. Ih-this work... three, men and a driver Were erhbloyed loading each truck. Thus, the cost for transport equalled approximately 17s per day per man employed on this work Snow re:moval in shopping areas was undertaken on: July 31. By this time the volume, of snow to be removed was about one-fifth of the original volume. " Study ipf Overseas Methods 1 Mr Scoular states in his report that hdihad ah opportunity Of studying, during last, December and January, snow removal methods in. 1 Glasgow, Edinburgh, New York.- Philadephia and Washington, D.C. . :■ " With a snowfall of only about two Inches,; Glasgow relied. Oh its heavily trafficked streets, on salting Streets in Manufacturing areas were uncleared. Oxi the Glasgow-Edinburgh highway, with about six-inch snowfall no grading whatever was done. I was disappointed with snow removal efforts in Edinburgh, Here, no njachinery was available, and the methods were disappointing and expensive and the results poor. „ , “I spent nine days in New York City, from the commencement ofi a seven-inch snowstorm. It is to be appreciated that the Department of Sanitation, New York, is a very highly organised. and efficient body, possessing 2,000,000 dollars’ worth of special new plant in addition to older plant, and is specially organised for snow clearing work. The method there was to open up for traffic arterial routes, .snow removal work, where justified, being held up till a later stage. Employment of men loading trucks in ••the early stages would have prevented traffic flow. The methods adopted in Dunedin during the recent . 15-mch snowfall, and .the resultspart due to the steady thaw) compared very favourably with New York More than a week after the seveninch snowfall there were still ungraded streets in Manhattan. Long Island, University, Montclear. N.J., and in Philadelphia. Provision for Future “Judged by these standards in cities having an annual heavy snow problem, and where a very close study was made by me of the methods and results, it'ean fairly be claimed that the effort made in Dunedin was a credit to the City Works Department. Furthermore, I am of opinion that the work has been carried out In an economical manner. Notwithstanding this, it is to be appreciated that the city works maintenance vote will be required to meet a heavy abnormal expenditure not only for re-establishing normal movement,, but also for repairing the damage due to snow and water, to graders operating on payed surfaces, and to motor vehicle chains punishing road surfaces. It is not possible at this stage to estimate the additional cost for restoring street surfaces. “Regarding provision for the future, it Is felt that the additional plant now on order for the City Works Depart-ment—high-lift shovel bulldozer and another heavy duty grader—together with existing plant, will provide reasonable carriageway equipment for a similar emergency. It is suggested, however, that two snow plough blades be obtained for wheel tractors in order that better provision may be made for clearing of sidewalks, thus reducing the danger to pedestrians who have been forced to walk on the cleared portion of the carriageway.”