The City of Edmonton started residential blading on Monday morning in hopes of getting rid of the ice and snow buildup on many neighbourhood streets.
The decision to do residential blading comes after the city put out a call last week for residents to report snowy and icy road conditions. The city said it received a high number of notifications for snow and ice in all areas of the city.
From Sunday, Dec. 2 – Dec. 8, 311 received 320 complaints for snow and ice on city walkways and slips and falls. The following week — from Dec. 9 to Dec. 15 — that number spiked to 1,367 complaints, according to data from the City of Edmonton.
The city issued 798 warnings for slippery walks between Dec. 2 and Dec. 16. During the same time, 137 tickets were issued.
“We recognize that the freezing rain and numerous freeze-thaw cycles have made for conditions that require a city-wide approach in residential areas,” Andrew Grant, general supervisor of Infrastructure Operations with the city, said in a media release Monday.
Crews will use sand to break down some of the ice before scraping the ice and snow. Blading will be done around the clock in hopes of hitting all areas of the city within a week, the city said Monday.
“At this point we’re just trying to break that surface ice and get some salt and sand down and just trying to create some traction,” Grant said.
“We do have the five-centimetre rule that we go by, just trying to maintain that smooth driving surface.”
While there are no residential parking bans during blading, the city asks people to remove their vehicles from the street when crews are in their neighbourhood. The residential blading schedule can be viewed online.
“If you can just move your vehicles off the roadways to give our plows full width of the road,” Grant said, “they can do a much better job and they can get through the neighbourhoods a lot faster.”
The city said snow and ice will not be hauled away except where it’s necessary for safety reasons.
Watch: Nearly 800 warnings for slippery sidewalks and 137 tickets were issued in the first half of December. Meanwhile, Edmonton crews are tackling residential roads. Kendra Slugoski explains.