The snow dump in Moncton is growing, and so is the curiosity surrounding it.

Sixteen hours a day snow-removal trucks drive in, dump their load and return. More than 16,000 loads of snow have been dumped at the site since Jan. 27.

The dump is now 300 metres by 150 metres, or the size of a football field. The peak of the mound already reaches three stories high and is attracting a steady stream of visitors.

Jeff Scott of Moncton Public Works says that while the snow dump is drawing curious onlookers to the site, the public is being warned the area can be quite dangerous due to the amount of traffic going through.

“If someone wants to get a view of the pile of snow they can come in,” he says. “There’s a bit of a parking area there where they can look at the pile [but you have] to make sure you stay out of the way of any of the trucks that are coming in or out.”

Scott says so far there haven’t been any security issues.

Meanwhile, in Saint John, the city’s snow dump is on property owned by the Port Authority and is off limits to the public. In Halifax the city has a policy not to divulge where its snow dump is located, but won’t say why.

The City of Moncton leases the snow-removal trucks at an average cost of $65 dollars an hour depending on the size of the vehicle. Some of that cost is recovered from private operators charged $7 dollars for every truckload they bring to the dump.

Scott says there’s still room for more snow at the dump. He hopes that when the mountain starts to melt, it does so gradually.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis