O-day’min Park (formerly Warehouse Park)

[SarcasticMarmot]

heated parkade ramps don't melt the snow to water which then runs down the ramp and into the drains. the snow melts and quickly turns to vapour. There's no build up of liquid water.

Ya no, our condo parkade ramp has heated concrete and there is definitely a channel and drain at the bottom. It does indeed require regular maintenance and cleaning and when it gets clogged it's a major issue. When there is a large snowfall it can be quite a large amount of water.

 

[archited]

The ratio of snowfall to melt/sublimate-water/mist is between 10:1 and 20:1 based on the type of snow that is falling -- most large snowfalls occur in milder weather and the snow is "lighter" so the ratio is closer to 20:1 (20 cm of snow converts to 1 cm of melt/sublimate); conversely dense snowfall is typical of colder temperatures with much smaller amounts of accumulation (5 cm of snow converts to 0.5 cm of water. With proper path drainage (2% slope from path crown) that portion of the snow that is not sublimated will quickly drain to the edge of the walk and will not be required to drain away because the total accumulation is very small. Check out the visuals I provided earlier. This isn't so much as a "straw man" as it is a "red herring". Parking ramps are far broader in terms of surface area requiring drainage than are foot paths. Herring are a favorite Norse food.

 

[kcantor]

The ratio of snowfall to melt/sublimate-water/mist is between 10:1 and 20:1 based on the type of snow that is falling -- most large snowfalls occur in milder weather and the snow is "lighter" so the ratio is closer to 20:1 (20 cm of snow converts to 1 cm of melt/sublimate); conversely dense snowfall is typical of colder temperatures with much smaller amounts of accumulation (5 cm of snow converts to 0.5 cm of water. With proper path drainage (2% slope from path crown) that portion of the snow that is not sublimated will quickly drain to the edge of the walk and will not be required to drain away because the total accumulation is very small. Check out the visuals I provided earlier. This isn't so much as a "straw man" as it is a "red herring". Parking ramps are far broader in terms of surface area requiring drainage than are foot paths. Herring are a favorite Norse food.

Except… the water will not drain away from that “edge of the walk”. The initial water flow will be “soaked up” by the snow at the edge of the walk which will in turn freeze into an insulated impermeable curb/ice dam which will hold water and allow it to back up over the walk and then freeze. You see that a lot on sidewalks set back from the street curb where there are snow banks on both sides. It’s the same phenomenon that creates ice dams on roofs.

 

[archited]

^ Last comment on this subject. This depends entirely on where the last heating element terminates in relation to the width of the path. Feel free to go on but this is not worth the time to keep countering arguments -- it is becoming an ever more common element in the Scandinavian countries where it has met with success when installed and detailed properly.