New this winter season, Edmontonians will have a better way to track city snowplows and know about snow-clearing efforts in their neighbourhood.
“We’re excited to introduce improvements to our snow- and ice-clearing maps. They’re improvements to both our roadways and our active pathways maps to make them more user friendly and more mobile friendly,” said Mark Beare of the city’s Parks and Roads Service.
The snow and ice control map shows in almost real time where city plows are and what roads are next on the priority list.
“The map that you’re going to notice the biggest change in is our roadways-clearing map, where we use GPS data to show where each piece of active equipment is across the city during a snow event,” Beare said.
“This map provides a near-real-time look at snow- and ice-clearing efforts and should help residents who want the latest information on where we’re prioritizing our work.”
The city maintains more than 12,000 kilometres of roadway and 500 kilometres of active paths.
About 100 plows are available to the city at any given time, Beare said.
“The map will show each vehicle as it’s in action and, for those that we’ve assigned names, you’ll also be able to see them moving about the city,” he said.
In January 2023, the city ran a contest where people could submit names for Edmonton snowplows. After more than 2,100 entries, the city gave monikers to 15 plows, including Plowy McPlowface, Ctlr+Salt+Delete, Darth Blader, Peter Parka, Plowasaurus Rex and The Big Leplowski.
Equipment that is in a maintenance yard won’t be shown on the map as it’s one of the geo-fenced spots.
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The snowplow-tracking map can be found online here.
Any concerns with snow clearing can be reported to 311.