St. John's toughest street — to plow

During a recent snowfall, my trusty 1998 Corolla crawled up a steep hill near the house.

The road had been plowed, but the flurries where fast and furious, making the side street a little treacherous.

As the tires spun and the old chariot fishtailed at a snail’s pace, my thoughts turned to sex ... Yikes, wrong blog. Again.

No, seriously, I started thinking about snowplows and how I wouldn’t want to be navigating one of those mothers up a narrow, winding and/or steep hill. Especially in a blizzard.

That led me to wonder about St. John’s toughest street, from a plow operator’s perspective.

I put the question to Paul Mackey, the city’s director of public works.

“Probably Holloway Street,” he said.

“It’s one of the steepest (in the city), and where it’s located, it’s a very difficult street.”

There are a few other streets that can pose problems, he added.

As an example, he pointed out the visibility on Ruby Line can be bad in certain conditions.

Mackey said Holloway — which runs from Gower to Water in the Downtown — is a street operators try to tackle as soon as possible.

“Because if it gets slippery, it’s almost impossible to deal with. So you have to get there fairly early in a storm to get salt down and get some traction.”

Want answers to a question that’s odd, intriguing or useless, email sbartlett@thetelegram.com.