Edmonton council demands faster snow removal
Crews commit to 24-hour work in pursuit of cleared neighbourhood roads
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EDMONTON - Transportation staff received a wintry blast Wednesday from city councillors who want snow from recent storms cleared more quickly off residential roads.
“Edmonton deserves better. I certainly question why a city like Ottawa can clear all its residential streets within 10 hours after a storm. Winnipeg does it within five days,” Coun. Kerry Diotte said.
“Clearly people want this. Every year for as long as I can remember, people say patch the potholes in summer, clear the snow in winter.”
The city will commence 24-hour-a-day residential work starting Wednesday night in hopes of doing at least an initial blading in all neighbourhoods by the end of next week, roadway maintenance director Bob Dunford said.
“This is something we haven’t done before,” he told city council.
“We feel this is about the only way we’re going to get ahead of it.”
But it will take at least a couple of passes to reach the target snowpack of no more than five centimetres from the current 13 centimetres, because they don’t want to create big windrows blocking sidewalks and driveways, he said.
Other cities also restrict parking and might have fewer cul de sacs, which are much harder to clear, he said.
Crews have been working flat-out since Jan. 7, dealing with Edmonton’s largest snow dump since 1989 and the continued bad weather since then, Dunford said.
They’ve been so strapped for staff they’ve even called in some of last year’s summer students.
The biggest problem for plows and graders is parked cars, which make it hard for equipment to operate efficiently.
One bus route required a detour Tuesday when transit vehicles couldn’t fit between windrows caused by parked vehicles, transportation operations manager Brice Stephenson said.
“We’re encouraging Edmontonians to get your vehicles off the street. We’re publicizing now the residential areas we’re doing on a daily basis.”
Meanwhile, officials said the front-end loader operator charged with impaired driving earlier this week was not doing work for the city at the time of his arrest.
While his employer does contract work for the city as well as other jobs, the driver was cleaning a parking lot when he was stopped by police, they said.
