What you need to know about Edmonton’s snow removal plans

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As the last leaves fall, the City of Edmonton is detailing plans for when the snow hits the pavement, highlighting updated real-time maps and “adjusted prioritized service levels.”

The city says crews are organized, ready, and excited — especially with snow forecast for Monday.

“Last year, that was a little bit more reactive when we didn’t get the snow,” said Mark Beare, director of infrastructure operations, at a Thursday news conference.

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“This year, we’ve been proactive in structuring our team so that everybody has a primary snow and ice clearing responsibility and a secondary redeployment activity, so if there is milder weather, then crews are already structured in a manner that they’re able to do important work.”

Here’s what to know before snow lands on Edmonton’s 12,000 kilometres of roads.

Budget

The snow removal budget? $66 million for the 2024-25 season.

Staff

The city has a full staff of about 600 members who clear roads and pathways, said Valerie Dacyk, general supervisor of infrastructure field operations.

“We have crews ready and able, and we will be out working 24-7 as soon as the snow starts,” she said.

Priorities

There are different degrees of importance when it comes to snow removal.

“Priority service levels are how we manage and measure our performance following a snow event,” Dacyk said.

“The timelines only start when the snow stops. If the snow starts again before we clear our priority timelines, we restart the priority levels.”

Road priorities:

• Priority 1: select freeways, arterial roadways, downtown business districts, and hills are cleared within 24 hours
• Priority 2: remaining freeways, arterial roadways, business districts, collector roadways, and Transit Park and Ride access roads are cleared within five days
• Priority 3: industrial areas and rural roads are cleared within six days
• Priority 4: residential roads (only when a Phase 2 parking ban is in effect) are cleared within 10 days

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Pathway priorities:

• Priority 1: city facilities and the winter priority loop (pathways connecting downtown, Old Strathcona and the University of Alberta) are cleared within 24 hours
• Priority 2: city sidewalks, staircases, ramps, shared paths, pedestrian bridges, bus stop access, and bike lanes are cleared within three days
• Priority 3: manually cleared areas, bus stop benches, and pads are cleared within 14 days
• Priority 4: refilling community sandboxes and clearing safe mobility devices are done when resources allow

Live maps

You can see where The Big Leplowski, Connor McBlade-It and Plow King — snow plows named by the people — are on the live roadways snow-clearing map.

New this season is the active pathways snow-clearing map, which will be updated like the roadways one, officials said.

The city said it has nearly 200 vehicles, including the 30 named plows, used to clear snow and ice.

“Under normal weather conditions, the map displays the priorities of each roadway while showing the locations where plows are applying traction and conducting touch-up clearing,” the city said in a news release.

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“When significant snow falls, a snow event is declared and the map adjusts to display the clearing status of all roadways and the location of plows.”

Parking bans

When a “significant snowfall” prompts “improved service,” the city can declare a parking ban, which has two phases:

1. Major roads:

• crews clear core business areas, bus routes, and business improvement areas
• you can keep parking on your residential street
• can last up to five days

2. Residential and industrial areas:

• conditional and declared if needed after a Phase 1 ban
• can last up to 10 days
• crews clear residential and industrial areas
• you can park on your driveway, in a parking space on a neighbour’s property (with their permission), or on roads cleared during a Phase 1 ban

Dacyk said the city will provide at least eight hours’ notice before a ban.

You might get a $250 ticket if you don’t move your vehicle. Municipal enforcement issued about 700 parking ban tickets last year, according to officials.

“When vehicles are parked in areas that crews are attempting to clear, it means a reduction in the efficiency and speed of the snow removal,” Dacyk said.

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“To work effectively and efficiently, we ask that everyone helps us by moving their vehicles when a parking ban is called. We live in a winter city and look forward to helping everyone embrace it.”

She encouraged people to sign up to receive notifications about parking bans and clearing statuses.

Sidewalks

The city stressed that snow removal is a shared responsibility, so shovel your sidewalks right away or you might get a $100 ticket.

You can get free sand from 100 locations to keep sidewalks accessible.

If you’re curious about winter statistics, Beare pointed to the city’s site featuring reports and snow storage plans.

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