Posted in Snowpiles, tagged Cleanup, Snowdump, Turcot on July 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Photography, Snowpiles, Urban, tagged Melting, Snowpile, Turcot on May 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posted in Dreams, Infrastructure, Photography, Signs, Snowpiles, tagged Disco Ball, Hydrant, Photgraphy on May 22, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Posted in Driving, Photography, Snowpiles, Urban, tagged Photography, Snowpiles on May 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
“unbelievable… the turcot yards burried under tons of dirty snow. I wish i could have gotten a better picture, but the guys from the MTQ did not like to see me hanging around. I had to quickly zoom with the fisheye still on, and then drive on urgh. “
And douaireg has a lot of nice images of Saint Henri as well.
Posted in Photography, Snowpiles, Urban, tagged environment, Snowpile, Turcot on May 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Explored the east end of the Turcot snowpiles the other day. It’s a bit strange how from the freeway it looks like a huge gray snowpile that is just slowly melting. But up close you can see that there is tons of earth and gravel marbled in. And tons of snowblower shredded trash. One of the more interesting things about Turcot Yards over the last few years was how clean it was relative to what one might normally think of huge abandoned spaces. But now it is filthy.
Here is the eastern tip of the larger snowpile. Falaise is blooming nicely.
Not a piece of The Rock.
On the part I walked on there was a lot of these holes.
It was quite windy so I am not sure how much toxic crap I was exposed to but so far I haven’t lit up in the dark. Still, this walk was a real eye opener in regard to how much garbage we gather with snow clearing maintenance. Of course the carcinogens remains slyly invisible.
P.S. Seems the toxicity of the Turcot Snowpiles is getting in the news.
Posted in environment, Infrastructure, Snowpiles, Urban, Video, tagged Snowpiles, Video on May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There was some magic going on in the Yards this winter as the snow just kept piling up and up and it was quite beautiful at times. But it has stopped snowing and the warmer temperatures of April have turned those piles into ugly, dirty, and probably quite toxic, slag heap looking shapes. Kirk Bennett believes there is some serious trouble with those piles that may cause some health concerns.
Here is some video he has produced.
For a good overview of the issues being presented here, please check out Kirk’s website that deals exclusively with the Turcot Snowpiles right here.
Posted in Development, Photography, Snowpiles, tagged ecoterritory, frigate on April 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Pullman and the foot of the Agrignon overpass.
Western end of the Falaise Saint Jacques. That tip was cleared out some years ago, but wasn’t developed save for some advertising. That is no way to treat an Ecoterritory!
And the famous Turcot snowpiles are looking a little less ominous from this angle.
Catch frigate’s Flickr pages here.
Posted in freeway, Photography, Snowpiles on April 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Driving, freeway, Interchange, Photography, Snow, Snowpiles on April 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posted in environment, Infrastructure, Otter Lake, Photography, Snow, Snowpiles, Urban, Urban Ecology on March 27, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Article in today’s Gazette discusses the Turcot snowpiles in regard to melting and contamination of the water.
“There might be a potential for contamination that could have been recognized by the Environment Ministry and the Transport Ministry,” said Yves Girard, head of Montreal’s snow removal co-ordination office, referring to the Turcot site. “But it’s a site that’s well waterproofed because it has been paved over – so any water, in theory, will melt toward the sewers and not into the soil.
“The risks aren’t high, but we never know.”
It is hard to say how much pollution is under the Turcot asphalt. It was a very busy yard from the coal burning era that was refiitted into a container yard in the early 1960′s. You can bet that CNR did not decontaminate the land, which it owned, but merely paved over. However, as a rail and container yard, and based upon personal observations, Turcot has an excellent drainage system in place (there was once Otter Lake in the east end and the Riviere Saint Pierre ran through it). Still, this is a site where snow was removed from until 2002, so it will be interesting to see how it holds up under these new conditions.
Phil Carpenter, The Gazette.
And it could certainly serve as a teaching aid to demonstrate how pollution exists in sometimes very appealing situations such as nice big, bright snowpiles.
Posted in Airport, Photography, Snow, Snowpiles on March 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Most of us probably do not give a lot of thought to things such as snow removal at the airport. But take an area that is the size of a couple of boroughs, a near record amount of snow, and you can begin to understand the enormity of the job. So today I will salute those who have worked hard at clearing snow this year (which is just about all of us) with a special nod to those who keep the runways clear.
Posted in Snow, Snowpiles, Winter on March 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This one is just east of Thimens and Poirier in Ville Saint Laurent. Wide angle lens tends to shorten it a bit.
I really wished I had a video camera that day. The way the machines move around up there, it really is a “ballet mechanique“. Well, somebody should do it!
Posted in architecture, freeway, frozen textiles, Infrastructure, Interchange, Photography, Snowpiles, Structures on February 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
We are expecting up to 30 cms of snow over the next 48 hours as we continue to pile it up in Montreal. That will sound very sweet to people who deny global warming is real, but the truth is, if it’s connected at all, it’s more in tune with an increase in hurricanes, floods, etc. Enjoy!
Posted in Art, frozen textiles, Photography, Snow, Snowpiles, Winter on February 22, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Well, it sure looks like I at least got to see one large scale project at Turcot Yards that has made the whole journey more than worthwhile. Who would have thought that turning it into a snow dump would have done the trick? The main snowpile runs about 2/3 the length of the yards. I have never seen anything quite like it before. I really think the people that snowblow the snow up there are having a great time. That’s a job I would love!
Story in Westmount Examiner.
Posted in Art, Photography, Snow, Snowpiles on February 11, 2008 | 5 Comments »
This one is east of Avro and Des Sources in Dorval.
They are all over the island this year and we may never see snowpiles this large again. I am going to post your large snowpile pictures here, and if there is a good response I will create a page just for them. Turcot Yards has been turned into a snow dump this winter and it is just amazing! So who is going to beat me to posting images of that?
