Vehicles getting in the way of snow clearing

Kelowna residents are encouraged to move parked vehicles off roadways, especially in snow route areas where parking bans are still active.

“We are seeing roads that our operators can’t service because they can’t get a truck between vehicles parked in the street,” roadways operations manager Andrew Schwerdtfeger said. “Moving your car off the street means better and faster snow clearing service for everyone. It’s crucial in snow route areas but it’s important on any street.”

Snow route areas include Academy Way, Black Mountain, Clifton/Magic Estates/Wilden, Dilworth Mountain, Kirschner Mountain, McKinley Beach and areas in the South Mission, including The Ponds.

City bylaw and parking services were ticketing in snow route areas Thursday and enforcement will continue until the parking ban is called off.

There are 20 units currently clearing and sanding roadways in Kelowna. Crews will continue to focus on priority one and priority two roads until snowfall ends and roadways can be cleared according to the priority system.

Other ongoing snow and ice control efforts include:

• Five sidewalk units clearing walkways surrounding city property and on arterial routes.
• A team of nine people clearing transit stops and other areas by hand.
• Two front-end loaders moving sand.

Ten trucks hauled more than 1,200 metric tonnes of sand to the City Yards site Thursday and will continue this work until the sand storage facility is at capacity. Crews also completed resupply of salt and calcium chloride deicer.

Roadways crews have serviced 33,742 km of roads in the last week and that number is increasing by the minute. Since this year’s first snowfall on November 4, crews have serviced 124,618 km of road.

Priority one roads are large arterials like Gordon Drive and Rutland Road, priority two routes include collector roads with steep hills, sharp curves, school zones, emergency vehicle stations and transit routes, and priority three routes are local and residential roads.

The city expects to complete residential road clearing by Thursday afternoon.

For more information about snow removal and priority routes, visit kelowna.ca/snow.