City crews working hard to keep sidewalks clear of snow

City work crews are busy clearing snow from London's roads and sidewalks.

In some cities, such as Windsor and Kitchener, homeownersand businesses are asked to keep the sidewalks clean, but in London it's the city's responsibility.

London's policy is to clear the sidewalks after an accumulation of 8 centimetres.Crews then have 24 hours to clear all sidewalks or at least make one pass, saidJohn Parsons, the city's manager of transportation and roadside operations.

Priority Plowing

"We do it on a priority basis. So anything on a main road or a bus route,those are completed first. Then, we move on to the local streets, the same philosophy that we follow with road clearing."

Parsons says sidewalk crews are always deployed four hours after snow plowing begins because they know from experience that the discarded snow from a road plow will fill up an adjacent sidewalk, and when that happens,crews have to go back to clean it off.

City gets complaints

Parson concedes the cityhears from residents who don't think the sidewalks are cleared fast enough.

"They're hoping that the service level could be higher. It's something that we've reported on at council a number of times. But our level of service for sidewalks is very similar to other municipalities in Ontario."

Some residents have told CBC News some sidewalks never get plowed. But Parsons saidthat's not the case. He saidbecause snow from a plow often gets pushed onto a sidewalk, it just "looks like" the sidewalk hasn't been cleared.

In a situation such as that the city will send in a snow blower mounted to the sidewalk plow to clear away the snow.

How to lodge a complaint

Londoners can call 519-661-4570 to file complaints about snow-covered sidewalks, or send an email to es@london.ca Parsons saidsupervisors investigate and deploy equipment as part of the regular maintenance routine.

Parsons asks citizens to be patient because the city has 1,500 kilometres of sidewalks to clear on a regular basis. The yearly budget for sidewalk snow removal is $1.5 million, or about $1,400 per kilometre.