Frustrated residents of a Winnipeg neighbourhood say they've been awakened by the sound of snowplows coming down their streets at night, even though there's hardly any snow on the ground.

Transcona resident Kirk Brennan said he was roused from bed by the sound of the loud plow Monday after midnight. Frustrated, he decided to take a video of the plow coming down the nearly snow-free street.

"It's like a screeching, rumbling sound that you don't normally hear when you're clearing snow," he told CTV Winnipeg.

Despite the lack of snow and ice on the streets, Brennan said the plows have visited his neighbourhood three times so far this month.

The city says the practice is called "spot plowing," and it has to be done to prepare the streets so surveyors can get cost estimates for upcoming road work.

Machines are brought in to remove snow and ice from the curbs, so that surveyors can obtain an accurate reading of the damage, the city said.

Resident Rebecca Oost said her family has been awakened twice because of the plows.

"Last night was definitely the loudest and longest," she said. "We could hear them blocks away."

Brennan said he hopes the work will wrap up soon. "It's disrupting people's sleep; it's waking people up," he said. "In my opinion, they're wrecking their equipment by clearing snow that doesn't need to be cleared."

The city said that most of the surveying work for the year has been completed, but there are still a few locations that the plows may have to visit.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Josh Crabb