'The trucks are ready': Crews set for the snow to fly in Edmonton

EDMONTON -

While fall in Edmonton has been relatively mild so far, the city is preparing for eventual snowfall to blanket the city.

“The trucks are ready to go at any time,” Andrew Grant, the general supervisor of infrastructure field operations, said.

But, he said, there is a priority hierarchy for when a snow event occurs:

• Major roadways throughout the city and business improvement areas,
• Collector bus runs and all paths adjacent to that,
• Industrial roadways, and
• Residential roadways and alleys which are cleared once a five centimetre snowpack has formed.

“Crews are on a rotating shift to ensure we have available staff for whatever situation we find ourselves in,” he added.

The city said active pathway crews will be responsible for clearing bike lanes and infrastructure adjacent to city facilities within 24 hours, followed by all other city maintained active infrastructure.

Manually cleared amenities will be cleared within five days.

WINTER PARKING BAN

According to Grant, on average the city will have two to three parking bans a season, with the threshold being about 10 centimetres.

Vehicles will not be ticketed or towed this year. Instead, Grant said the city will take more of an educational approach to streamline operations and resident cooperation.

“It’s going to take some time for our citizens to fully comprehend and understand how the parking ban works,” Grant said.

The city will have designated parking areas and facilities available on days where a parking ban is called. Grant said signage will be put up and additional resources will be available online. 

“I really encourage citizens to have those conversations now before the snow falls to find alternative parking throughout the city.”

According to Grant, by enforcing parking bans, operational crews will be able to maintain and groom residential areas more efficiently and ensure windrows are maintained to avoid visual obstructions for motorists.

“Our trucks are big, those residential areas are tight and when we have cars lined up on both sides of them the trucks struggle to get through.”

• Cul de sacs, parked cars on list of obstacles to residential snow clearing

'THINGS TAKE TIME'

While this year is more of a test run, Grant said the ban is “here to stay.”

“Things take time in order to make real change and it’s not something we wanted to roll out to just shut down.”

Grant said his team feels prepared as this year’s winter fleet has about 125 units spread out through five operation yards.

“When it snows, we are out working,” he said.

“My prediction is Dec. 13 if anyone is wondering of when we’re going to see the first accumulative snowfall.”

• 'We'll just have to get out there and plow': City ready to clear snow from streets without calcium chloride

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson