A seasonal parking ban will go into effect in Edmonton at 11 p.m. Wednesday after heavy snow blanketed the city and surrounding areas overnight.
All available city snow-clearing equipment was out on the roads Wednesday morning, focusing first on the main arterial roadways.
Between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday, 137 collisions were reported to Edmonton police. Of those, 118 were property damage collisions, 10 were hit and runs and another nine resulted in injuries, according to police.
The city’s general supervisor of Infrastructure Field Operations said the goal for maintenance crews is to get the roads down to bare pavement.
“This is the largest snowfall for the 2019/2020 season,” Andrew Grant said Wednesday morning. “We did see it coming.
“All of our crews and all available equipment are out rendering our mobility network safe. We’re currently working on plowing all of our arterials, our Priority 1s and 2s throughout the city of Edmonton. We’re going to be working our way into the Priority 3s hopefully later today.”
Crews will be working 24 hours a day until major roads are clear.
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“We will be looking to get the snow off the roadways. We’re heading into a deep-freeze here so we want to get the majority of snow off the road just to eliminate the risk of it turning to ice.”
Grant said the city was in the process of calling in contract workers as well, in hopes of adding upwards of 200 more pieces equipment to the snow-clearing efforts by midnight.
With those extra pieces of equipment coming onto the roads, a residential parking ban will go into effect at 11 p.m. Wednesday.
“That just gives our crews room to clear the entire roadway right of way, and work more efficiently throughout the city,” Grant said.
Vehicles parked on routes marked with seasonal parking ban signage after 11 p.m. Wednesday will be ticketed and towed at the owner’s expense, the city said.
The parking ban remains in effect until the city announces it has been lifted.
“We’ll make that decision based on how quickly our crews move through the city and when the snowfall actually stops,” Grant said.
Grant said the hope is to get into residential neighbourhoods by Sunday to clear the streets in those areas.
“Anything over five centimetres compacted in the driving lane of the residential roadways is what we’re looking at. We’re just going to be blading it off in the residentials, trying to get some of the ruts out of it and making it just for passage.”
A snowfall warning remained in place for Edmonton and surrounding areas late Wednesday morning. All snowfall warnings in Alberta were dropped by Wednesday afternoon.
The blast of snow comes as the area is about to head into its first major cold snap of the winter.
Daytime highs of -25 C to -26 C are expected for Sunday though to Tuesday, according to Global Edmonton weather specialist Mike Sobel.
For more information on seasonal parking bans, head to the City of Edmonton’s website.
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