Edmonton snow-clearing crews tackling entire city, including residential again

With warmer temperatures this week, it’s “all hands on deck” for Edmonton snow-removal and windrow pick-up crews.

“As the temperatures return to the seasonal norms, our crews will be out in full force addressing all the snowpack and ice,” Andrew Grant, general supervisor of infrastructure operations, said Wednesday.

The Phase 2 residential parking ban resumed on Monday and the city expects it to continue for approximately four weeks. As of Tuesday, crews have completed 43 per cent of residential areas.

“Our crews are going through all of our residential areas again, including those that have already been bladed,” Grant said.

“We have seen additional snow since we paused residential clearing due to the extreme cold, so we will continue to go through all of the neighbourhoods until they are complete.”

Residents are asked to move their vehicles off residential streets when it’s their neighbourhood’s turn for clearing. A snow-removal schedule can be found online. Signs will also be placed at the entrance to neighbourhoods when crews start tackling that area, Grant said.

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Vehicles that aren’t moved could be ticketed, but they also slow down the whole snow-clearing process.

“It definitely impacts how fast we can operate,” Grant said.

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“We can usually get through a neighbourhood a day, but we’ve seen neighbourhoods take up to three days… It substantially increases the amount of time.”

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The extreme cold weather also pushed back the snow-clearing schedule. The residential blading cycle was paused because the extreme cold can create risks for staff and the heavy equipment, Grant explained.

“We lost three weeks,” he said. “We’re three weeks behind, according to the calendar.”

“We’ve had some extremely cold weather that’s forced us to adjust our operations over the three weeks… and we’ve seen a lot of snowfall as well.

“It’s truly been all hands on deck.”

This week, the snow-clearing work is back on track, Grant said. Crews are in residential neighborhoods, clearing snow down to as close to pavement as possible.

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Alleys are cleared in coordination with the city’s waste department because a lot of the snow-removal equipment used on streets is too large.

“We do send our trucks in there,” Grant said. “It’s done with different equipment but we try to align those operations.”

He said alleys are cleared before the main residential road is so that the snow removed from alleys can be collected by the larger equipment clearing the streets.

Once crews have completed clearing a road in a residential neighbourhood, specialized equipment removes windrows that are blocking driveways and crosswalks.

This equipment follows the graders, but not immediately — it can take up to several hours.

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City crews do not remove windrows from curbsides in residential areas. Any snow piles that are left in cul-de-sac areas after clearing will be picked up by crews within two weeks.

Windrows that are causing a safety concern can be reporting by calling 311.

“We will be removing all windrows on priority one and priority two roadways,” Grant said.

“We’re on it,” he said, adding it just takes some time given how much snow Edmonton has received recently.