City Has Lots Of Free Post-Storm Wood Chips

This is a release from the City of Ottawa:

We have now entered the fourth week of recovery efforts following the April 5 significant weather event. Public Works remains in activated operations and work continues across the City. For many services within Public Works, this is not business as usual. While we are trying to stay on top of our regular services in addition to the cleanup efforts, it is recognized that some services may see some delays. We are making every effort to minimize the impacts of those delays.

On-street chipping and debris collection

This week our Forestry crews joined Roads crews in our on-street wood chipping and debris collection operations. Solid Waste is also offering trucks when they can. Crews will be doing one pass. As of yesterday, Alta Vista has been completed. Over the next two weeks crews will be working from the Ottawa River to Baseline and St.Laurent to Moodie. They will start on these borders and work their way in. On-street chipping is set to begin on Monday in the Rockcliffe and Beacon Hill areas.

Work will continue over the weekend in Osgoode and Metcalfe where Forestry will be bringing some larger trucks to move large debris. It will go to a temporary storage site at our Barnsdale composting location to await chipping.

Solid Waste is contributing 14 trucks in two crews that will start work tomorrow. One crew will start collecting debris in West Carleton before heading south to Stittsville. A second crew will start in Bells Corners and move through Kanata before meeting the first crew in Stittsville. They will then head south to Richmond and Manotick.

As we start to progress through the cleanup, there may be some scheduling updates midweek. You will always be able to find the most up to date schedule here.

As of yesterday, our Roads crews have cleared 423 lane kilometres of debris. This number will rise once our Forestry crews’ data becomes available next week.

Ice-Storm Clean-Up To Take Weeks

Free Woodchips Available

Some of the debris that’s been collected as part of recent recovery efforts has been turned into woodchips and is available to residents – free of charge – at the following locations:

• Recreation facilities
  • Navan Memorial Centre, 1295 Colonial Road
  • Nepean Sportsplex, 1701 Woodroffe Avenue (Minto sports field parking lot, between Minto field and Hamilton baseball diamond)
  • Sandy Hill Arena, 60 Mann Avenue (southwest corner, on the fenced-in side of the property)
  • Kanata Recreation Complex, 100 Charlie Rogers Place
  • Jim Durrell Recreation Centre, 1265 Walkley Road
  • Stuart Holmes Arena, 5660 Osgoode Main Street
  • Larry Robinson Arena, 2785 8^th Line Road, Metcalfe
• Yards
  • 2145 Roger Stevens Drive
  • 4244 Rideau Valley Drive

Please note these woodchips will be available while quantities last. We are asking anyone coming by to please bring your own shovel, gloves, and container for easy transport and to abide by the safety instructions posted at each site.

While we will try to replenish some sites as required, it is our goal to set up new locations where crews are chipping to make our operations as efficient as possible. These locations will be posted here.

Safety is always our priority. In addition to wearing gloves, choose appropriate footwear and be aware of other individuals and vehicles at the yards or facilities.

We appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue working on restoring areas that have been impacted by the storm. 

Forestry calls

While our Forestry crews have joined the on-street chipping operations, they are still responding to storm-related service requests.

Here are the latest numbers:

• 5089 total calls

• 2467 completed Notifications
• 1462 Notifications assigned to crews and that have been triaged by Inspection Staff (Most of these have been attended to by crews but have follow up action i.e. brush, wood pick up, stump grinding.)                                        
• 304 Notifications outstanding (awaiting assessment)
• 856 Notifications in progress by Inspection staff

Things to Note

• You can support our efforts by making use of the City’s Leaf and Yard Waste Program.  

• The City is continuing its commitment to re-establishing the lost tree canopy by re-planting lost City trees. Residents who would like a tree replacement on the City’s right of way are encouraged to request it through the Trees in Trust program. Staff will continue to assess the loss of trees in City-owned parks before planning for their replacement.

• It has been a challenging month for our Parks Maintenance staff. In addition to cleaning up after the ice storm, many crews were also deployed as part of the City’s enhanced emergency operations in response to spring flooding in Cumberland and Constance Bay. Our resources have been stretched but we continue to work on minimizing any delays to our regular services.

Look Ahead

We recognize that there is a lot of work that remains and many neighbourhoods to address once we complete the ones listed above. We will continue to spread our resources across the city until the work is complete. Teams will complete a single pass to collect the debris. Residents are encouraged to check the City website for when their neighborhoods will be targeted. We will also be notifying all affected councillors before we enter their wards so they can use their various social media platforms to remind residents to have their debris ready for removal.

We will continue working safely and as efficiently as operationally possible to get into a neighbourhood near you. 

The encouragement you have shown Public Works since the start of this event has not gone unnoticed. Thank you for your unwavering support as we continue responding to yet another weather event.

In turn, I am committed to continuing to provide you with weekly updates on the status of our operations. Unless conditions and/or our operations change considerably, please expect our next update to follow on May 5.

Sincerely,

Alain Gonthier
General Manager
Public Works Department

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