Discussions

hope that the city has crews working 24 hours a day! The roads needs to be cleared ASAP!  
 
I feel bad for people who have to try to get to work, thankfully vacation time here in this house, phew! But if the cabs cannot travel the streets wth do people do?

So we will be out 24hr for the next while. But still it will take time. One crew will be noon to midnight, then the other midnight to noon.

I understand people's frustrations but I also get this is not an easy cleanup for city workers. Stay safe out there and thank you for all you do!

storm won't be subsiding till at least noon. Even with 3 graders and 3 loaders, it's going to take time. We will probably have to deal with stuck vehicles, large drifts, sightseers, ect..

Does the city of Brandon only have three graders and three loaders, this in my opinion seems a little short for equipment when I look at a city the size of Brandon, and when there is a snowfall event like this are contactors called on to help.

Added a few pics from the 18th St S/mall area to the road conditions thread at https://ebrandon.ca/messagethread.aspx?message_id=:967888&cat_id=:3  
Long story short, would not drive unless you absolutely have to. Until folks have had a chance to shovel and snowplow, walking through a foot of snow and drifts is quite a bit of exercise too because of how heavy/packed it is compared to snowfalls from earlier this year.  
 
That said mall is to open in a few min and by the look of staff getting ready to open stores, most if not all will be open. I'm sure they''''ll have it plowed out very soon (being worked on), but good luck finding a place to park as of about a half hour ago  
 
Edited by Adam, 2016-12-26 09:00:45

do have a few more loaders. Contractors will be busy with their other contracts. There is another grader at the airport, but it stays there.

don brown said "Does the city of Brandon only have three graders and three loaders, this in my opinion seems a little short for equipment when I look at a city the size of Brandon, and when there is a snowfall event like this are contactors called on to help. "

I think I remember the city using other companies and I sincerely hope they do this time around too!

Johnbisonbear said "    don brown said "Does the city of Brandon only have three graders and three loaders, this in my opinion seems a little short for equipment when I look at a city the size of Brandon, and when there is a snowfall event like this are contactors called on to help. " I think I remember the city using other companies and I sincerely hope they do this time around too! "

private contractors are also going to busy as hell doing places they are contracted to do.  
 
PLEASE EVERYONE UNDERSTAND IT'S GOING TO TAKE TIME FOR EVERYONE TO GET THINGS CLEARED. THAT i:ncludeS CITY, PROVINCE, PRIVATE!

Private contractors will be doing their own lots! This is an exceptional circumstance and everyone just has to be patient and deal with it.

Starbucks (Corral Centre one beside subway) is closed due to the weather  

We are not open due to heavy snowfall. Stay home and let the snow clearing crews do their job. Residential streets are undriveable.

&mdash: StarbucksBrandon (@sbuxbrandon) December 26, 2016

 
 
that means no coffee for me but safety for the employees is important. Glad they made the decision to close.

Lots of miles of streets to cover and it's not like plowing roads out in a rural municipality where sometimes they can get decent speed.  
Anyone have a number of miles or kilometres of streets in Brandon.  
I guess usually the private contractors are hired on when it comes to getting the big piles cleaned up as well as boulevards.

do the piles when we get time and don't get contractors for that. There's only rare times where the contractors get hired for clearing streets.  
 
Everyone will have whatever piece of equipment that can clear snow in use all throughout Southern Manitoba.

Oryx said "Private contractors will be doing their own lots! This is an exceptional circumstance and everyone just has to be patient and deal with it. "

that the clean up of city streets is going to take awhile and yes I know private contractors have their own jobs to do. However once the private contractors are finished with their snow clearing there is no reason the city cannot hire the private contractors to help with the plowing of city streets And you nailed it Oryx, the contractors mainly do lots of businesses right?  
 
It`s not good if even the cabs cannot drive the streets in case people need to take advantage of their service.  
 
Now I want to know why some people are insisting upon driving streets that are covered in snow, they are getting stuck and I`m finding it hard to see because I can`t even offer a push.

took a few days to get all the priority routes done last time. But this is far more snow than last time.  
 
The contractors also have to do the private lots and streets like where I live.  
 
Edited by Trevor B, 2016-12-26 11:02:41

Trevor B said "took a few days to get all the priority routes done last time. But this is far more snow than last time.     The contractors also have to do the private lots and streets like where I live.     Edited by Trevor B, 2016-12-26 11:02:41"

24 hours a day too Trevor?

yep  
 
If we didn't have to worry about clearing driveways, it might go a little quicker. For the loader guys anyways, might still take the same with the grader.  
 
Edited by Trevor B, 2016-12-26 11:14:26

This gave a giggle this morning. I think that if the streets are not driveable people in the city should do what those in the country do when the highways are closed...stay home! Lost pay and all!

Johnbisonbear said "    Oryx said "Private contractors will be doing their own lots! This is an exceptional circumstance and everyone just has to be patient and deal with it. " that the clean up of city streets is going to take awhile and yes I know private contractors have their own jobs to do. However once the private contractors are finished with their snow clearing there is no reason the city cannot hire the private contractors to help with the plowing of city streets And you nailed it Oryx, the contractors mainly do lots of businesses right?     It`s not good if even the cabs cannot drive the streets in case people need to take advantage of their service.     Now I want to know why some people are insisting upon driving streets that are covered in snow, they are getting stuck and I`m finding it hard to see because I can`t even offer a push. "

Yes it would be nice if the City subb'd a bit out to the Private guys. But let's just hope they can at least out fit their equipment properly. See so many unsafe bobcats cruising all over the place. No flashing blue light, no slow moving sign, sometimes they will have their bright white reverse lights shining in your eyes at 6am. I am surprised the City police don't do something, there are so many. Oh well I guess nothing bad has happened yet, so they let em slide. I know our work loader is properly marked and it doesn't even leave the yard. Oh well I don't like the liability.

My husband is the foreman at a municipality in rural Manitoba and he has difficulty dealing with the unrealistic expectations that people have when there is a snow fall like we are currently experiencing. Getting approximately 800 miles of road cleared just simply takes time and will not happen immediately.  
 
Inevitably with this much snow there is a multitude of things that can happen and sometimes equipment does break down and when it does it takes time and manpower to fix it so if you don't see him on the road there is probably a very good reason why.  
 
He just managed to make it in to work with a 4 wheel drive this morning and already people have been phoning the house wondering where he is and when he and his crew will have the roads opened up to travel on.  
 
You will do far more to help if you stay off the road and keep your vehicles off the streets to not impede the work they have to do. There is also signage on the back of the equipment indicating to stay back for your safety because they can and do back up and if you are on their ass they can't do the job they have to. In a heavy snowfall like this there is the very real possibility that those signs might be blocked by snow so even if you can't see or read the signs...stay back anyway.  
 
Also, in order to widen out the roads in town for two vehicles to pass they have to put the snow somewhere until they get a chance to move it with the loaders so it just may have to be in your yard for a short period of time but it will be cleared away. It just might not be tomorrow or the next day but it will get done. You just have to be patient.  
 
To all the men and women who are responsible to see that our roads are cleared and safe to travel on you have my heartfelt thanks. I will not complain if you tear up a bit of sod when the ground isn't frozen or if I have to shovel if a bit of snow roles off the end of your mole board onto my lane.  
 
These men and women work very hard and they deserve much more appreciation then they actually get. Please be safe out there and to everyone else maybe thank them instead of complaining if the snow plowing is not perfect.

Never_give_up said "This gave a giggle this morning. I think that if the streets are not driveable people in the city should do what those in the country do when the highways are closed...stay home! Lost pay and all! "

I'm up in The North on holidays which didn't get anything out of the snow storm. My parents had a kid offer to shovel their driveway on Christmas Eve. Nice gesture to say the least.  
 
In seeing some of pictures, its bit unrealistic to have any non essential businesses to be open today. Thankfully some places used common sense and stayed closed.  
 
Let the city get things atleast reasonably plowed today. In the meantime, do the usual neighbors helping neighbors deal especially if one has a good snow blower.

Officially at midnight this morning it was 11.4cm, of course there was a lot more after that overnight and some more over the rest of the day. Environment Canada will at the least include today's total on their Brandon page tomorrow.  
 
This link is saying that at mid-afternoon it was 21-26cm:  

Snow totals from #mbstorm - looks like #Boissevain is the snowfall winner (or loser) depending on how you see it... pic.twitter.com/iHtAIqfV8b

— Ross Hull (@Ross_Hull) December 26, 2016

 
 
Edited by cotr, 2016-12-26 21:10:23

Some of us who have the machines and have been hired to do private lots previously are having a hard time keeping up. Remember that for a lot of the private lots we do we have to do snow clearing AND removal- trucking it to Vic east depot. That takes the time. I would be surprised if the City subbed clearing out. They will likely use their own equipment and finish in due time.

We live in the East End and couldn't open our front door this morning as the storm door wings out. We had 14 inches (36cm) on our front deck. It was not a drift either, it was perfectly level with the rest of the front deck.

EC saying 15cm yesterday, so 26.4cm between the two days