Weathering winter's wallop

March 20 marks the official start of spring, but here in Nova Scotia someone apparently forgot to tell Old Man Winter his time is up.

The province was hit by a double-punch of powder this past week, with Halifax in particular getting the worst of the impact. Sunday’s storm was easily one of the season’s largest in terms of accumulation, with many areas receiving more than 20 cm. But that paled in comparison to Wednesday’s storm, which according to some reports may have dropped upwards of 50-75 cm of snow on Halifax. Transit shut down, businesses stayed closed and the city’s residents spent hours upon hours shoveling themselves out.

Between the two winter storms, Halifax received more total snow than even during the infamous “White Juan” snowstorm back in 2004.

Both storms closed universities in the province, and Wednesday’s storm even led to an extremely rare two-day closure for Dalhousie’s Halifax campuses. (With Truro receiving less snow, the Agricultural Campus was able to open at noon on Thursday.) But while most students, faculty and staff stayed home, Dal’s grounds team was on campus, hard at work trying to clear away the snow.

A challenging winter

To get a sense of the scope of that work, we spoke with Tom Innes, general foreperson with the Halifax grounds team and a six-year Dal employee.

“This is the worst winter I’ve experienced here at Dal,” says Innes.

“It’s the volume that makes it difficult,” he explains. “Every year, there’s always a big snow or two, but then there’s a thaw. This year there’s been no thaw, which means we’re running out of places to put the snow.”

That means more snow having to be trucked away from campus. According to Innes, more than 300 truck beds of snow had been removed from the Halifax campuses this winter prior to Wednesday’s storm — a number that’s certain to be significantly larger once this current cleanup is done.

Dal’s snow removal effort in Halifax takes 11 staff with the Facilities Management grounds team and an additional 10 or so personnel from private contractor Ocean Contracting. For Wednesday’s storm, the team attempted to clear campus during the storm itself but ceased after about six hours, as high winds were filling in the snow faster than it could be cleared. Over the subsequent days the Dal team put in two steady 10-hour shifts clearing away snow, with overnight and additional support from Ocean.

A job well done

And yet, despite this being the wildest wintery week Halifax has seen in years, faculty/staff and students who returned to campus Friday morning found most campus roadways and sidewalks relatively clear and accessible.

It’s another impressive achievement for a grounds team that's been receiving rave reviews all season, in both social and traditional media, for its snow- and ice-clearing performance. During a winter in which many of the city’s sidewalks have remained ice-logged, Halifax pedestrians worried about their walk have been able to breathe sighs of relief when they reach a mostly-clear campus.

So what’s the secret to Dal’s success?

“It’s timing, in some ways,” says Innes. “It’s pretty hard to predict Nova Scotia weather: it can call for 10 cm and then you get 30. You always try and make sure you have your people ready to go, and on our team everyone’s willing to come in and do their part.

“We hold ourselves to a high standard, as we do with our contractor. Our team takes great pride in their work and in keeping campus safe and accessible for everyone.”

In other words, it's hard work — but whether it's in Halifax or in Truro, the work is certainly appreciated by everyone in the Dal community