EDMONTON – Edmonton crews began neighbourhood blading Monday morning, but, thanks to recent warm weather, drainage crews are also being put to work.
Several days above zero are causing a fast melt of winter snow.
The city’s director of drainage operations says a three-week warm spell in January presented a unique situation this year by opening up a lot of the drainage system in the middle of winter, before freezing again when temperatures dropped.
“Right now, our system is actually performing really well,” said Derek Melmoth. “It’s just a matter of where we can’t get it open, we will open it up and it’s actually doing quite well.”
In some areas, the melt is creating pooling water along roads and sidewalks.
The City says drainage crews are responding to these areas.
“This weekend, we only had about 20 calls come in on Saturday,” said Melmoth. “On Sunday, we had just over 200 come in, and these calls range in anything from icy side walks and icy conditions to plugged catch basins to ponding.”
Above: The balmy reprieve we had in January is coming back to bite us, causing the city’s drainage system to freeze up. Laurel Gregory explains the effect.
Crews will assess the situation and work closely with the transportation department.
“We will call on them for their blading assistance and their heavy duty equipment.”
Meanwhile, neighbourhood blading began at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
To view the blading schedule, click here.
Residents are asked to move their vehicles off the street whenever possible, but a parking ban is not in place.
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