EDMONTON – City of Edmonton crews are behind schedule when it comes to blading residential streets.
“It’s been a slow progress. We’re currently in day six of what should be a five day program,” said Bob Dunford, Director of Roadway Maintenance with the City of Edmonton.
Crews have been working around the clock since early last week, in hopes of getting all of the residential streets cleared. Dunford says warmer temperatures and rain earlier this week made the snow pack on residential streets quite heavy, which contributed to the delay.
And even though there is no parking ban on residential roadways, Dunford says vehicles parked on the street also caused difficulties for blading crews.
“It really has created some difficulty for us and slowed us down. It’s meant that we’re not doing as good a job in those areas as we’d like to because, of course, the trucks are only able to get down the middle of the road. They’re not able to clear it off to the side at all.”
As of noon Sunday, the City had finished blading 75 per cent of Edmonton’s residential routes. Dunford says the City is committed to finishing the entire cycle Monday, even with a snow storm on the way.
“We’ll work into tomorrow as well, regardless of what happens with the snow tonight. We’ll have to split our resources and leave some in the residential and then address the snow that does come,” Dunford explained. “We’ll bring in contract graders earlier if we have to, just to make up the difference on the arterial and collector network.”
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Dunford was apologetic for the delays, and said the City would continue updating its website with the latest residential blading schedule.
“We completely understand the frustration of citizens and apologize to all those who have been waiting all week for their roads to be bladed, only to have the schedule change as we fell further behind.”
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