Extreme cold weather makes snow removal challenging in Edmonton

In contrast to Edmonton’s dry and relatively snowless November and December, January has been quite a shock for drivers.

Early January brought some snow, which was followed by an extreme cold snap.

“We experienced a very cold weekend,” said Valerie Dacyk, general supervisor for the city’s infrastructure field operations. “Since then, the weather has warmed up. Because of that, and the humidity in the air, we are experiencing a little bit of ice formation. In response, we have trucks out 24/7 to put traction mitigations down to make sure roads are safe to travel.”

Extreme cold temperatures right after snowfall can be challenging for crews, Dacyk explained.

“Once weather goes below -40, plowing becomes quite difficult. The snow sticks to the pavement, it doesn’t peel up quite as nicely. We were able to get most of the accumulation off, but there was some remaining. Anything that was remaining, we put traction mitigation down to keep cars on the road,” she said.

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Dacyk explained the city uses various vehicles for different jobs. Trucks have front-mount plows or under-body plows and can also spread traction material on the road.

“Those instruments are used to move the snow off the roadway. They can also put down sand or salt, or both, depending on what the temperatures are,” Dacyk said.

There are also graders with blades underneath them.

“Once we call a parking ban, you’ll see more and more graders. Those can put a lot of pressure down on the roadways and they’ll scrape up the snow or the packed snow.”

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The city does not plow residential streets until there’s a five- to 10-centimetre snowpack.

“Crews will monitor for any sort of traction concerns or rutting,” Dacyk said. “If they start seeing those, we’ll send crews into groom that, where we’ll scrape it down or provide sand.”

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This year, the city’s snow-clearing budget is $65 million, up from $61 million last year, according to Dacyk.

Some Edmonton drivers aren’t sure where that money is going.

“Honestly, I think it’s absolutely horrible,” said Duyen Nguyen on Friday. “I don’t know where my property taxes are going but it’s not to the roads. I’m extremely unhappy. Extremely.”

Another driver said she’d like to see some attention given to residential areas.

“They’re extremely slippery,” Ashley Hegemann said. “(It’s) crazy that there’s no sand, especially in residential areas. It’s extremely slippery. It’s very unsafe.”

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Jovileth Paredes also found conditions very icy.

“I think it’s slippery. After the -50 last week and a little sun?”

Another Edmontonian thinks this year hasn’t been that bad, all things considered.

“So far, so good,” said Barb Thompson.”They’re not too bad. I think the city has done a good job with them. They’ve been out sanding. When it was really, really cold, the residential streets were horrible, but that’s the way it is.”

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Coun. Karen Principe said she’s heard fewer concerns this winter than last but she’s always open to hearing about issues.

“I’m hearing some concerns with road conditions but I know the city has been very diligent in making sure we’re keeping our roads as safe as possible,” she said. “One thing that I hear residents saying is we need to focus on the core services. And many folks feel that snow removal is a core service so I think it’s really important that we re-evaluate it and make sure that we’re using the right process.”

Any road concerns should be reported to 311, Principe added.

“My inbox has been much more reduced this year compared to previous years,” Coun. Michael Janz said. “In general, I’m seeing incremental improvement to the roads standards, especially some of the major corridors.”