Edmonton is implementing a city-wide parking ban, after the region was blanketed in a fresh coat of snow overnight Thursday.
The Phase 1 parking ban begins at 11:59 p.m. Friday.
During a Phase 1 parking ban, crews clear snow from major roads, core business areas and bus routes.
Drivers are not allowed to park their vehicles on arterial or collector roads, on bus routes, or on any roads with “Seasonal No Parking” signs, or within the city’s 13 business improvement areas until the roads have been cleared.
People can continue to park on residential streets.
The city anticipates the parking ban will only include Phase 1 and will last about 72 hours.
“I’m not saying we’re not going to go into the residential (streets), but we’re not going to call a parking ban in the residentials,” said Andrew Grant, general supervisor of infrastructure operations for the city’s parks and roads services.
“Once we finish those Priority 1, 2, 3 roadways, we’ll have our crews and supervisors out inspecting those residentials.”
Crews don’t want to create more windrows or block catch basins, Grant explained.
“While spring is around the corner, winter has not quite left us yet and enough snow has fallen over the last 24 hours that we ask residents to move their vehicles from the city’s main roads to allow us to clear the snow,” he said.
“The Phase 1 parking ban will ensure we can keep Edmontonians moving on our major roadways.”
Grant said prior to this latest snowfall, crews finished picking up windrows and the main roads had more room.
For this latest event, the city is calling in all additional resources.
“We have definitely used a lot more resources than we have in winters in the past but we do budget accordingly for surges in work,” Grant said, adding that Edmonton is within its $58-million snow budget.
Despite the resources, Grant says this winter hasn’t necessarily seen more overall snow than previous years.
“I think in 2018, 2019, we actually saw more snow. I think more of the challenge around the work this season is just the frequency around these weather events.
“You get two centimetres, (then) two centimetres, (then) two centimetres, freezing rain, two centimetres — that’s where it really starts to impact budget and resource requirements because you’re constantly having to continue that surge level of operation.”
The goal is to clear Priority 1 roads within 36 hours of snowfall stopping, and Priority 2 within 48 hours of snowfall stopping.
Edmontonians can go online and sign up for road maintenance and parking ban alerts.
They can also fill out a survey about the city’s snow and ice removal program.
Victoria Fildes, of Boadicea Lawn Care & Services, expects Edmonton will see another snowfall before the winter season ends.
“I’m pretty sure we’ve got a couple dumps ahead of us before we see the sunshine.”
The service company clears snow for 30 clients. Thursday and Friday were busy, long days and Fildes expects Saturday will be the same.
“Early start, going to be a late finish. It definitely snowed on us a lot more than we were anticipating,” she said.
“Take your time, try to shovel the best you can without using your back too much. It’s going to break your back otherwise. And most importantly, if you get some ice underneath, throw down some grip anyway.”
Between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Friday, Edmonton police said 49 collisions were reported. Four of those were injury collisions, five were hit and runs and 40 were property damage collisions.
Between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., there were 19 reported collisions.
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