MONTREAL—Exactly two days after the City of Montreal began carting away a record amount of snow from last Thursday’s storm, just over a quarter of the city’s streets and sidewalks had been cleared.

On Sunday morning, the city announced that snow-clearing operations were 27 per cent complete. Since Friday, 3,000 workers armed with over a thousand plows and dump trucks have worked around-the-clock to clear the 45-centimetres that fell on the island Thursday.

Despite six-centimeters of snow that fell on Montreal Saturday afternoon, snow-clearing was not hampered.

On New Year’s Eve, the city’s snow-clearing will grind to a halt as many municipal workers will have reached a limit set by provincial law: 70 hours worked in less than seven days.

Work will resume on Jan. 2 at 7 a.m. and is expected to be finished before morning rush-hour the following Monday.

By Sunday, only 1,000 cars had been towed as part of snow-clearing operations, far less than the 800 towed cars seen nightly in previous years. To help citizens, Montreal has set aside 5,700 free overnight parking spots throughout the island.

The entire snow-clearing operation is expected to cost $25 million. The annual budget to remove snow is set at $150 million, with the expectation that Montreal will face six to eight large winter storms this year.

Highway closures

Transport Quebec announced a number of highway closures and partial closures on Sunday night going through to Monday morning to clear snow off the shoulders of Montreal-area freeways.

Partial closures

  • A-13 North & South between A-20 and the Louis-Bisson Bridge (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.)
  • A-15 North & South between A-40 and the Mederic-Martin Bridge (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.)
  • A-15 North & South between A-40 and Atwater Ave. (10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.)
  • A-20 East & West between the Galipeault Bridge and Dorval circle (9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.)
  • A-40 East & West between Cavendish Blvd. and the Ile-aux-Tourtes Bridge (9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.)
  • A-720 East and West between the start of the highway and Fort St. (7:45 p.m. to 5 a.m.)

Complete closures

  • A-20 East & West between the Dorval circle and Angrignon Blvd. (9 p.m. and 6 a.m.)
  • A-40 East between A-520 and Langelier Blvd. (10:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.)