As the snow falls, the township hauls

CENTRE WELLINGTON – As the snow piles up Centre Wellington is hauling it out — by the truckload.

Township infrastructure manager Colin Baker said the volume of snow removed, though not tracked, is likely double that of a normal winter.

That tracks with the level of snowfall seen during an especially white winter this season.

Between November and February, 228cm of snow has been recorded at the Fergus Shand Dam weather monitoring station.

That's nearly double a 30-year average of 117cm over the same three months, based on data recorded at the station between 1981 and 2010.

Upwards of 140 dump-truck loads of snow have been moved thus far this winter, largely from Fergus and Elora downtown cores, according to Baker.

A greater volume of snow is removed from Fergus than Elora, despite fewer removal events, according to township data.

So far there have been three snow removal events in Fergus, with around 100 loads of snow trucked out.

In Elora, there have been eight removal events, with between 30 and 40 loads trucked out.

Snow is trucked to the township's public works yards in Fergus and Elora.

Baker stated in an email that staff monitors roads where there isn't a lot of room for snowbanks to accumulate.

"Within the township, these identified areas are almost exclusively in the downtown cores, or at intersections where sightlines are impacted by the large snowbanks," Baker wrote.

Removal is coordinated when snowbanks begin encroaching onto the travelled portion of a road, or when they hinder sidewalk snow clearing operations, he added.