is an important part of the seasonal public works budget and each snow storm provokes a major logistical operation involving thousands of employees working in shifts 24 hours a day. The effort can vary greatly depending on the amount of snow. Montreal gets about 225 cm of snow each winter and spends more than $158 million Canadian (2013) each year to remove it. Toronto, with about 50 per cent more population and 28 per cent more road surface, gets only 125 cm of snow a year and spends about half that. The higher cost in Montreal is due to the need to perform "snow removal" as opposed to simple "snow clearing" necessitated by both the high snowfall amounts and fewer melting days. In Helsinki, Finland, the amount of snow transported from streets and properties to snow dump sites during the winter of 2009–2010 was 210,000 truckloads, equaling over 3 million cubic meters. Snow removal impacts the design of city infrastructure. Where possible, street boulevards are wider to accommodate the windrows and sidewalks are not right next to the street. Fire hydrants will have tall flags to locate them under the windrows. Reflective traffic lane markers embedded in the roadbed is not possible (or much harder) due to risk of damage by plows. Access to snow dumping locations (e.g. ravines) by heavy equipment is also planned. It is estimated that Canada spends $1 billion annually on snow removal. The employees who do this work are generally the same workers who do road maintenance work during the summer months, but in some US cities garbage trucks are also equipped with plows and used for snow removal. Many smaller US communities sign contracts with insurance companies, under which the insurance company assumes the risk of a heavy winter. The insurance company of course sets the rates such that averaged over time they will make a profit; the town is willing to overpay for snow removal in mild winters in order to avoid the risk of running dramatically over budget in the occasional severe winter. Large organizations such as universities and airports also often have their own mechanized snow clearing force. Public transit systems generally clear bus stops while post offices clear around mail boxes. Railroads have their own snow clearing devices such as rotary snowplows. Airports, with their associated runways, taxiways and ramp areas are an exception to the use of salt, as