Slippery sidewalks in St. John's: City says doing best it can given conditions

City of St. John's Coun. Danny Breen saysworkers are doing the best they can to make sidewalks walkable following a perfect storm of slippery conditions recently.

Rain mixed with freezing temperatures hasleft many concrete walkways with a thick layer of ice on them over the last few days in the city.

Breen said the amount of ice is really challenging for crews, even with all available equipment out working on salting sidewalks and roads around the clock.

"The problem when you have freeze and thawlike we've had, with repeated cycles, is you get different layers there," he said following Monday's council meeting. "It's a job to get the salt to work. But we are continuing to work at it, it's really what we're focusing on right now."

Walkers not left out in the cold

Breensaid while he understands itmay be very difficult for walkers to get around in icy conditions like those this seen this week, he said it's important for people to know that the city has been investing in improved sidewalk clearing overthe last few years.

He points to the fact that eight years ago there was virtually no sidewalk clearing in St. John's, however last year $1-million was invested in 24-hour sidewalk clearing and this year the city put in an extra $600,000.

Breen said the city also tries to use the wind blade from the plows on sidewalks in order to clear them off where possible. He admits itdoesn't do a great job, but that it does help a little.

Business owners are also responsible for clearing their own sidewalks, however Breen said the areas around vacant businesses are obviously not being cleared regularly. He said the big challenge downtown for the city is actually getting the snow removed and trucked out.

In the meantime, he hopes people understand how difficult it is to keep everything clear and salted when ice conditions are what they have been this week.

"This weather that we've had the past couple of days, it's been very challenging," he said."I know myself, I went to work this morning, salted down the parking lot at workand it's like the salt never took any effect on it at all."