The City of Calgary says all available equipment is being used to clear city streets amid a dump of snow that began on Tuesday.
“The snow started at about 3 a.m.,” Calgary Roads spokesperson Chris McGeachy said. “So our crews have been out since last night laying down salt.”
Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for Calgary and surrounding areas at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday, saying 10 to 15 centimetres of snow was expected in parts of the province.
“Crews right now are focused on Priority 1 routes, like Memorial Drive, Crowchild Trail and Glenmore Trail,” McGeachy said. “They will be focused on these roads while the snow continues to fall.”
“Primarily, we’re focused on applying salt to prevent the buildup of ice and that’s because of the temperature that we have out there,” McGeachy added.
“It is winter driving out there. Drivers may see some slick areas on hills, bridge decks … Just be careful.”
When the snowfall ends, the city will activate its seven-day snow clearing plan, and crews will begin working down the priority list.
Once Priority 1 roads are cleared, crews focus on Priority 2 routes — roads that carry 5,000 to 19,999 vehicles a day — like Kensington Road and Acadia Drive.
Crews then turn to clearing Priority 3 and four routes, which include residential areas and school and playground zones.
The City of Calgary has a snow removal budget of just under $40 million between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, and McGeachy said they’re still within that budget.
The City of Calgary is not anticipating a snow-route parking ban will be put in place to help crews clear streets.
The parking bans are put in effect on the city’s snow routes when Calgary has seen a significant accumulation of snow.
Learn more about snow-route parking bans
Snow routes are indicated by blue signs with a white snowflake symbol. Any vehicles left on snow routes during the ban can be ticketed or towed.
Once called, snow-route parking bans can be in place for up to 72 hours. On-street accessible parking is exempt from snow-route parking bans.
To find more information regarding snow-route parking bans, visit Calgary.ca/snow.
How to sign up for snow-route parking ban notifications
Although the most recent snowfall isn’t enough that the City of Calgary anticipates it will call a snow-route parking ban, drivers may still want to sign up to receive alerts so they know if one is put in place.
The City of Calgary announced in mid-October that its snow-route parking ban notifications would be moved to the existing myID system, which is already used for street sweeping notifications.
If you sign up, you can choose to receive text or email notifications about when a snow-route parking ban will be in effect and when it has been lifted.
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