Montreal has had a long cold winter, which has included a couple of dangerous ice storms. City planners have already indicated that he changing climate, including things like more ice storms, is challenging snow and ice removal efforts, and costing the city more.
This year there were hundreds of visits to hospitals in Montreal from injuries caused by falls on icy sidewalks.
Now the city is proposing to add heat to the sidewalks in a busy section of Montreal’s main business area on Ste Catherine Street.
The city is planning a major renovation of an area of this main artery next year, and according to a city document obtained by La Presse newspaper, the plan to be revealed in May, is said to include heated sidewalks.
Stephen Leopold, chairman of a major real estate firm who was speaking to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal recently said
“Imagine a clean, green renewable energy-driven, snow-free, salt-free, slush-free and ice-free Ste.-Catherine that encourages people to visit it in winter, to walk on it, to shop on it and its side streets, and come in from the suburbs in winter, and yes, attract tourists in winter. This will be a commercial boon for downtown and act like steroids in boosting Montreal’s commerce and businesses and the liveability of our city.”
Proponents also say that, not only would it make walking easier reduce injuries from falls and shovelling, it would also save the wintry city money in sidewalk clearing and salting.
Eirikur Hjalmarsson, head of communications at Reykjavik Energy, said the Icelandic capital has been saving money on snow clearing since it began installing heated sidewalks and streets in downtown Reykjavik about 10 years ago.
“It’s quite simple, when you’ve already installed it.'”I am sure that in several ways we have saved money because snow plowing is bad for the streets,” noted Hjalmarsson when interviewed by CBC radio in Saskatoon. That city has also been looking into the concept. H Hjalmarsson continued, “So we are saving on renovations of the streets and we are saving on snow plowing and we are saving on accidents to people.”
It’s also said to reduce damage from buckling and cracking of roads and sidewalks as the freeze thaw cycle is reduced in addition to less use of damaging salt.
Holland Michigan undertook a similar project by diverting heated waste water from its power plant into several kilometers of tubing under several sidewalks and downtown streets some 23 years ago. Reports are that winter traffic and downtown business has increased substantially since the move.
For Montreal, there seems to be several other advantages for store owners as well who wouldn’t have nearly the same amount of salty slush to deal with in terms of cleaning, and damage to floors and carpets.
The cost of the Ste Catherine Street revitalization is estimated at around $95 million and would like not be completed by 2017, the city’s 375th anniversary.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.