November 1, 2017
Ready or not, winter has arrived in Edmonton, and City Parks and Roads crews are ready to take action to keep traffic moving.
“Winter is definitely on the way, but we’re prepared,” said Janet Tecklenborg, Director, Infrastructure Operations, Parks and Roads Services. “We have over 150 pieces of equipment in our inventory ready to deploy, including plows, sanders, graders, sidewalk plows and more.”
According to the City of Edmonton’s
Snow and Ice Control Policy
, City roads and sidewalks are to be cleared within 48 hours of the end of a snowfall. Roads are prioritized according to the volume of traffic they carry. Arterial roads are cleared first, followed by collector and bus routes.
When less than approximately three centimetres of snow has fallen, City crews conduct ongoing maintenance as needed to keep traffic moving, including sanding. Once three centimetres accumulates and more snow is forecasted, snow plowing begins on major roads, including the downtown bike network. When over 10 centimetres has accumulated, all City equipment is deployed, additional equipment may be contracted to help, and a seasonal parking ban may be declared.
Beginning on the weekend, anti-icing solution was applied to select main roads, bike lanes and selected downtown bus stops as part of this winter’s pilot project. Treated roads are mapped at
edmonton.ca/antiicing
.
Neighbourhood blading will not begin until a five-centimetre snow pack has built up on neighbourhood roads. Each neighbourhood road is assigned a snow day, similar to a waste collection day. This means a street is bladed on the same day each blading cycle, regardless of which day the cycle begins.
