When it snows, our crews are out 24/7 to make Edmonton a safe and liveable winter city.
The City has approximately 700 people working on the Roads and Active Pathways crews. These are 2 separate operational teams with dedicated staff and equipment, to provide service levels on their own sets of inventory as they maintain more than 12,000 km of roadways and 500 km of active pathways.
The first response to a snowfall is to apply traction material, depending on conditions, to main roads and bus routes. Plowing begins once snow has accumulated on the main roads and the weather forecast calls for continued snowfall. See the Snow and Ice infographic for more details.
On most roadways, snow is placed in boulevards or left on roads. In culs-de-sac or roadways where snow cannot be placed in boulevards, the snow is stacked and removed during a clearing operation. Clearing occurs by a separate team and may take place at a later date. Snow that gets removed from roads is trucked to 1 of 4 snow storage sites. No snow is placed in fields or parks due to environmental regulations.
The City sands and salts roads and walkways as needed. The sand mix contains sand, salt, rock chips (being phased out) and calcium chloride brine. The specific ratios vary based on current weather conditions. Salt accounts for 12-18% of the materials applied to roads annually, making Edmonton one of the lowest salt users among major Canadian cities.
The dark colour of street sand is due to the mix of sand, pink salt (containing potassium chloride and iron) and liquid calcium chloride. It does not impact effectiveness.
The Community Sandbox Program provides free, dry sand at designated locations for residential use on icy sidewalks and walkways. For residential sidewalks, the City provides free sand for residential use.
A windrow is a pile of snow created by plowing equipment.
The City collects windrows from main arterial and collector roads, Business Improvement Areas, bus routes, windrow-free zones and culs-de-sac when necessary.
In neighbourhoods, windrows are generally not removed, but crews try to minimize their height at driveway entrances. The City clears windrows that cross driveways and are higher than 30 centimetres (12 inches or 1 foot), opening a single lane width (approximately 3.5 metres). Residents are responsible for clearing the rest.
If snow from windrows spills onto sidewalks and impacts their use, or if windrows are blocking sidewalks or causing a safety concern, residents should call 311. Crews will be dispatched within 1-2 days to clear them.
If a windrow is left in front of a driveway and is higher than 30 centimetres, residents should call 311. Equipment to clear these may follow a few hours behind the blading crews.
