Snow Clearing Service Levels

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The City maintains main roads, bus routes, bike routes and multi-use trails, residential roads and alleys throughout the winter.

When it snows, the City has a plan to efficiently clear roadways, protected bike lanes, multi-use trails and city-maintained sidewalks and bus stops.

Snow Clearing During Snowfalls

While snow is falling, equipment and crews:

Focus on clearing major roadways like Whitemud Drive and Yellowhead Trail
Clear and apply sand/salt to on/off ramps, bridge decks and river valley hills

When snow stops falling, crews conduct snow clearing following the priorities in the Snow and Ice Control Procedures. These priorities for roadways and active pathways are determined by a variety of factors, including safety, traffic speed and volume, design of the infrastructure, usage and more.

Parking Ban Notices

Subscribe to receive parking ban, snow clearing and street sweeping notifications.

Roadways Snow Clearing Map

See where the plows and snow clearing equipment are during and after snow events.

Active Pathways Snow Clearing Map

Includes priority levels of active pathways and the bike network.

Snow Clearing Priority Hierarchy

Roadways

Road Priority	Service Level	Parking Ban Phase
Priority 1: Main freeways, bus routes, downtown, business district and hills	Maintain to a bare pavement standard within 1 day following the end of snowfall.	Phase 1 Ban: The City clears major roads, including core business areas and bus routes. Lasts up to 5 days
Priority 1: Alleys/back lanes in business districts	Maintain to 5 cm snowpack within 5 days following the end of snowfall.	Phase 1
Priority 2: Remaining freeways, arterial roadways, business districts, collector roadways, Transit Park and Ride access roads	Maintain to a bare pavement standard within 5 days following the end of snowfall.	Phase 1
Priority 3: Industrial areas and rural roadways	Maintain to a bare pavement standard within 6 days following the end of snowfall.	As needed
Priority 4: Residential roadways and alleys/back lanes	Maintain to 5 cm snowpack and completed within 14 days once a residential blading cycle is initiated.	Phase 2 Once Phase 1 is complete, the ban may shift to residential and industrial area roads. No parking on these roads before and during snow clearing. Lasts up to 14 days Impacts to individual communities expected to be less - approximately 3 days.

Active Pathways

Priority		Service Level
Priority 1	Inventory adjacent to City facilities: City Hall, recreation centres and seniors centres Transit centres and LRT stations such as: City maintained sidewalks, wheelchair ramps, shared pathways, all season staircases and bus stops	Maintain to a bare pavement standard within 1 day following the end of snowfall.
Priority 1	Winter Priority Bike Loop Network of protected bike lanes, designated painted bike lanes and designated shared pathways	Maintain to a bare pavement standard within 1 day following the end of snowfall.
Priority 2	Excluding inventory listed above, all other City maintained sidewalks, wheelchair ramps, shared pathways and parking lots, all season staircases, access to bus stops adjacent to City property, pedestrian bridges	Maintain to a safe and passable surface beginning at the end of snowfall and completed within 3 days following the end of snowfall.
Priority 3	Other manually cleared active pathways and public amenities (breezeways, benches, bus pads and fire hydrants)	Maintain to a safe and passable surface within 14 days following the end of snowfall.
Priority 4	Community sandboxes and safe mobility devices	Completed when resources allow

Snow Clearing Tools and Methods

Several methods are used to achieve a safe and reliable mobility network. The goal is to use the right tool and method for the current and forecasted condition.

Plows and Graders
The City uses both front and underbelly-mounted plows. Front mount plows allow for clearing of roads. Underbelly plows are used to break up snowpack. Graders are the most powerful pieces of equipment within our winter fleet, and most effective at snow removal. Graders are used during major snowfalls to clear main roadways.

Hand Tools - Shovels, brooms, blowers
In tight, small or awkward spaces such as stairs, sidewalks, trails and bus shelters, basic shovels and brooms are used by hand crews. These tools are able to clear hard to reach or tight spaces.

Salt, Sand and Chip
The City applies a mix of sand/salt pre-wet with calcium chloride to roads to maintain traction and/or melt snow and ice. The exact mix varies according to temperature and conditions and can change quickly in response to shifting weather conditions.

Chip is typically only used at very low temperatures in snow-packed areas to provide traction. The City tries to use as little of this as possible.

Anti-Icing
Calcium chloride brine with a corrosion inhibitor is currently in use for several purposes:

On City-maintained sidewalks, protected bike lanes and active mobility pathways, including shared use paths), when the conditions require
As a pre-wetting agent for the sand/salt mix that is dispensed by sanding trucks and sidewalk plows, as it prevents the mixture from freezing prior to being dispensed, results in a more even dispensing of product with less clumping, and improves the adherence of the mixture to road surfaces

Windrows

A windrow is a pile of snow on the side of a road that was created by plowing or blading. After clearing residential roads, windrows of 30 cm or more that block driveways are cleared by the City, with enough access for one vehicle to pass through the windrow, approx. 3.5m. Windrows less than 30 cm that block driveways are the responsibility of the adjacent property owner.

City crews, when plowing or blading roads, try their best to ensure that windrows do not encroach on sidewalks. In some cases when there is a lot of snow, some may spill onto sidewalks. The City is provided some leeway by Bylaw Enforcement in this regard, and can encroach on sidewalks approximately 0.5 metres. However, if the spillover impacts use of the sidewalk itself, crews are required to bring in equipment to clear it away.

Windrows that are consistently 30 cm or more in height, left behind blocking driveways, will be cleared by the City to level snowpack within 12 hours of windrow placement. If windrows are blocking sidewalks or have caused a safety concern, please call 311 to report it to the City or use the 311 app on mobile or desktop, crews will be sent out within 1-2 days.

Windrows may lead to less on-street parking. Residents are encouraged to park on their property, for example, in driveways or garages.

The City will clear windrows where required from:

Arterial and collector roads
Bus routes
Windrow free zones
Cul-de-sacs when excessive snow volumes make it necessary

Culs-de-sac

Cul-de-sac clearing is done separately than regular residential blading. It involves both plowing and removing the snow to bare pavement from the entire cul-de-sac area. This process takes 4-6 weeks for crews to complete the 3,000 cul-de-sacs in Edmonton.

Due to the size and design of culs-de-sac, smaller snow clearing equipment is required. Culs-de-sac are cleared in response to large storm events, or when conditions warrant, on average 1-2 times per year. During this clearing, snow is stacked in the centre and removed during a clearing operation. Stacking and clearing may not occur at the same time. Removed snow is taken to one of the City’s snow storage sites. For safety, residents should not allow children to play on or in the snow piles when they are present.

Active Pathway and Bike Lane Maintenance

Protected bike lanes are cleared within the first 24 hours as part of our first priority for snow clearing.

Painted bike lanes are cleared at the same time as adjacent main roads to ensure all travellers on busy routes are entitled to the same road maintenance standards, regardless of mode. Painted bike lanes are not cleared to bare pavement, but to the same level of service as the road they are on.

Anti-icing brine is only applied to protected bike lanes.

Contact Us

Winter Maintenance

Telephone	In Edmonton: 311 Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311

TTY	780-944-5555