The amount of snow in some areas of the capital city is overwhelming sidewalk-clearing machinery.

That’s according to Deputy City Manager of Public Works Lynnann Winsor, who says despite an increase in the budget for sidewalk snow removal, the 70 centimeters on the ground in the capital city is too much for some of their equipment to handle.

She says a lot of the sidewalk snow clearing equipment is too small for the full removal required for many of the sidewalks, meaning only the larger machines are effective, slowing down the process.

Winsor says one of the factors delaying sidewalk clearing is the frequency of large snow events.

She says every time it snows, it resets the sidewalk priority list, meaning in active weather patterns like the one Newfoundland and Labrador is in currently, lower priority sidewalks sit a lot longer than desired.