Snow plows push problem onto residents in Apex

JOHN THOMPSON

Apex residents say Iqaluit’s truck drivers will be to blame for flooded homes this spring thaw.

“I’m going to be swimming in my living room,” said resident Wes Smith.

Smith installed a ditch, culvert, and retainer wall in front of his lot over the last two years. The drainage system is meant to clear melt water that flows downhill, from the back of his property.

But he said these schemes have been foiled because city staff keep burying the ditch and culvert with snow cleared from the roads.

Now he’s worried that the spring melt will create several feet of sitting water in his property.

“That’s a problem that’s going to affect everyone. [This culvert] doesn’t just clear my place. It clears the next three lots,” he said.

Smith tried to protect the culvert by surrounding it with large rocks and two small light posts that mark the sides of his driveway.

But he said that hasn’t stopped city trucks from crushing the ends of the culverts, and knocking a light from the front of his driveway.

Neighbours share Smith’s concerns.

“There’s no reason they couldn’t bring a dump truck in,” said resident Ken MacFarlane, suggesting an alternative to plowing snow up on the roadside.

“What the city should do, is put ditching in,” Smith said. “It just makes me irate.”

Mark Hall, the city’s director of public works, said Smith’s ditch and culvert encroach on the shoulder of the road, which is city property.

“It’s entirely their own liability. We encourage people not to do this,” he said.

“It’s client beware. There’s no malice here.”

Keeping the roads clear remains the city’s priority, Hall said, and they simply aren’t able to deal with all residential concerns.

“It’s a practical impossibility,” he said.

Currently the city has three high-weight plows operating 18 hours a day to clear streets, Hall said.

This year city staff face new challenges, such as clearing six-foot snowdrifts in the new Plateau subdivison.

City staff are also trying to preserve gravel, which is in short supply. That means protecting roads from wash-outs, sometimes at the expense of flooding adjacent properties and tundra.

“The challenges are endless and growing,” Hall said.

The city did contract a company to begin ditching in Apex last summer, Hall added. “Unfortunately the contractor failed in his obligation.”

In some cases, that work had to be completed with the city’s own equipment.