Lethbridge residents are being asked to do their part in helping snow removal efforts go smoothly in the coming days.
Between Wednesday, January 17th and Thursday, January 18th the City of Lethbridge could see as much as 35 centimetres of snowfall, keeping crews busy as they focus on priority one roadways. Transportation Operations Manager Juliane Ruck says there are nine plow trucks available to work 24 hours a day, and one of the biggest things residents can do to help, is staying away from the equipment.
“Those plows have a lot of blind spots, operators work in formations for priority one routes, with four to five trucks in a formation.”
Ruck adds when talking about snow clearing it is important to differentiate between snow clearing which includes plowing operations, which is a fast, efficient and “cost-effective” method and snow removal which is what is needed for the current weather event the city is seeing.
“This is where we bring graders out for priority one snow removal roads and grade the snow into the middle, followed by snow blowers and trucks to haul it away,” “It is quite an extensive operation, again we are asking residents to be careful when we maneuver around our equipment and ask them not to drive into those sites if they are blocked with blocker trucks.”
This work is said to be starting Wednesday night in some areas and will continue Thursday. Ruck adds once the snow stops falling, crews will have 24 hours to get priority one roads, which are considered to be the most important routes in the city, cleared.
Along with focusing on priority one routes, the city has also put snow routes into effect and are asking residents to remove their vehicles from street parking in these areas. Ruck says it is important that people listen to this PSA because parking tickets will also be issued for vehicles impeding operations still parked on these routes; as well they don’t want to see anyone’s want to anyone’s property damaged because the snow removal equipment can’t maneuver around the vehicle.
She explains that during the active snow route during the extreme cold at the beginning of the week the city saw some difficulty with residents not moving their vehicles.
“We understood that people couldn’t necessarily move their vehicles earlier in the week but I hope that by this event everyone knows how to stay informed. The weather is decent to move your car away, we are normally getting to these routes within 12 to 24 hours of declaration.”
“We are not asking to be off these routes for a lot of time, so we are asking residents if they could help us that would be great.”
