How Are They Going to Get Rid of All That Snow? Moscow’s Weather Isn’t Giving Much of a Break
Moscow weather isn't giving much of a break. Tonight, it snowed again, adding work to communal workers. Although, they're piled up as it is in all aspects. They still need to remove about 80 million cubic meters of snow, taking into account the one on the roofs. Today, Sergey Sobyanin demanded a more active engagement in clearing courtyards that people are still complaining about.
Yevgeny Davydov reporting.
- There’s never been so much snow!
And people don’t need any gym! The snowfall of the century passed, but the street cleaners never came to this courtyard.
- Now, I’ll try to dig it out. I took a scoop.
The main principle of getting the car out is to help yourself. One can’t do without a shovel.
- My neighbor came and asked to help him dig the car out from that side. I went out, it took us two hours last night.
The capital's backyards today have knee-deep snow piles. The snow on the sidewalks and the roadway is pressed a little, but, for example, it's more difficult to approach the cars. Today, many car drivers decided to use public transport or wait until the spring altogether. They often simply can’t leave the parking spaces.
- It's like this in every courtyard.
And even exiting buildings turns into a real quest, and the pavement here looks like an assault course. You can only move following each other’s traces. There’s ice under the layer of snow.
- We can’t get out. We can’t leave the house. It's very bad.
- We need to go to the doctor, we have no choice, or we’d have stayed home. But this is good exercise for mom!
In some areas, snow still covers allocated bus lanes, buses and trolleys have difficulties approaching bus stops. The situation is better on the central streets and highways. Machinery and people have been under strain for three days. The roofs are cleared of snow with the help of these bucket lifts. There's over a hundred of them in the Central District alone. Each cleans up to twenty roofs per shift.
Dmitry Bertman, artistic director of the Helikon Opera Theater: "We perform a daily record of snow and icicles on the roof in a very clever theatrical way. We have to shoot it on camera, showing today’s newspaper in the shot".
The Moscow central ring is being cleaned with a special train. There are two people in the cabin. One drives the train, the other's responsible for the wings and brushes.
However, while some work, others only pretend to. Internet users uploaded a video of tractors let idle.
- That's how they clean our roads.
It’s not very clear what these drivers are doing, but they aren’t cleaning. Probably, they simply wind extra kilometers to fulfill the norm.
People are at the height of winter fun in the capital's parks. Here, they ride on everything that slides. Snowmobiles, sleds and ice saucers.
However, some need more than snow hills. Today, in the west of Moscow, a lone horse with an inner tube was shot on dashcam. It's unclear how it ended up on the road and why it had an inner tube tied to it.
Yevgeny Davydov, Yegor Voshletsov, and Aida Burasheva, Vesti.