Edmonton – A second significant snowfall in the Capital Region has caused the City of Edmonton to extend its seasonal parking ban, after an estimated ten to 15 centimeters fell on the city Monday and Tuesday.
Director of Roadway Maintenance Bob Dunford is hopeful the seasonal parking ban will be lifted Thursday morning.
On Tuesday, there were 151 tickets handed out during enforcement of the seasonal parking ban.
Dunford said the most latest snowfall forced crews to complete a second full cycle on both arterial roads and collector routes, which he hoped would be complete by Tuesday night.
“We’re making good progress, just not as fast as we’d like. There doesn’t appear to be any more snow in the forecast at this point in time, so we should be able to get there,” says Dunford.
It’s the second major snowfall in Edmonton in less than one week, with an estimated combined accumulation of 40 centimeters.
Dunford says that’s double the accumulation of an average month of November.
“It can happen in the winter in Edmonton. Normally, it’s nice to just get a snowfall, cleanup it up and then prepare for the next one, but, in this case, we got them back to back,” says Dunford.
Roadway Maintenance has brought in 97 contract graders at midnight Tuesday to help city crews. There are now a total of 200 pieces of equipment on Edmonton roads, with crews working around the clock.
“We have about 500 staff and they’re on 24 hours, seven days a week. We have a rotating shift, so everyone works their shifts and we always have a certain amount of people off,” explains Dunford.
The City says it wants to make sure arterial roads and collector routes are in good shape before moving onto residential blading.
Crews began picking up snow in the downtown core Monday night after centre stacked windrows began affecting traffic. They worked on the Whyte Avenue area Tuesday night.
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