The City of Edmonton is hopeful it will be finished with residential blading by the end of the week, after a weeks-long effort to get the neighbourhood roads down to bare pavement.
“We’re on the home stretch of the Phase 2 parking ban,” Andrew Grant, general supervisor of infrastructure operations, said Tuesday.
“It’s been a learning experience and winter always has something tricky up its sleeve for sure.”
The city resumed residential blading on Jan. 12, after pausing for a few weeks due to extremely cold temperatures. At the time, the city estimated it would take four weeks to blade all of the city’s residential roads.
Grant said Tuesday that the work is about 89 per cent complete, and the city is on track to finish residential blading by the end of the week.
“With that, we will still have a presence in those residential areas completing our cul-de-sac work. We need to stack it all up in piles and get it hauled out.”
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Grant admits there have been tradeoffs when it comes to blading the entire city. This is the first season a Phase 2 parking ban has been issued in the city, and there has been no shortage of complaints from residents.
In an update to council Monday, city staff said compliance with the Phase 2 parking ban has been poor. More than 1,500 tickets have been issued in the past six weeks.
Councillors said they’ve heard from residents that the communication about the Phase 2 ban could be better; the signage is too generic and the messaging is confusing.
“You can’t expect people not to park on the street for weeks and weeks with the anticipation that the crews will come,” Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said Monday.
“There has to be better communication where people can know that: ‘OK, within two days my street will be cleared, or within one week,’ and you can find appropriate or alternative parking instead of parking on the street.”
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Grant admits there are tradeoffs when it comes to offering the blading service, and encourages residents to think ahead about where they will park when a Phase 2 ban is issued.
“We heard loud and clear that the citizens of Edmonton wanted to see a higher level of service in those residential areas, and this is one of the tradeoffs in receiving that service,” Grant said.
“We try not to disrupt the neighbourhoods for any longer than 72 hours to try to narrow the amount of time that we’re disruptive in those areas… We’ll continue to learn on the best approach and citizens will continue to learn and plan and look at different alternative parking options.”
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Sohi said he shares the frustrations of Edmontonians who are not pleased with the city’s snow removal this year, but admits the weather hasn’t made it any easier for road crews.
“There are variables that are not in anybody’s control, such as fluctuation in the weather where we have seen thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze situations and then extreme cold weather,” Sohi said Monday.
“This year has been very frustrating,” he said. “We need to do better and I am expecting that we will do better.”
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The mayor said about 90 per cent of the calls to his office alone have been about the large windrows that have been piled up on city streets.
Administration is preparing a report that it will bring to council in April on the status of the snow-removal program in Edmonton and recommendations on how it can be improved.