Saskatoon tackling largest snow removal 'in the history of the city,' says city manager

Saskatoon city manager Jeff Jorgenson says the city has never taken on a snow-clearing effort like the one it is doing now.

The type of service we're talking about is unprecedented," Jorgenson said.

Jorgenson said this may be the first time the city has ever cleared and removed snow from residential streets. He said there was extensive clearing done after a 2007 blizzard, but it wasn't the same volume of snow. In 2013, some residential streets had ice rutting that needed to be cleared, but it didn't affect the whole city.

The City of Saskatoon started clearing residential streets Wednesday night in the Kensington and Stonebridge neighbourhoods.

On Thursday, snow clearing started in Evergreen, Brighton, Hampton Village, Montgomery and Rosewood. Saskatoon's general manager of transportation Terry Schmidt said crews may be able to start Arbor Creek and Erindale Thursday depending on how the work goes.

Saskatoon saw 30 to 40 centimetres of snow over the weekend and it has taken days for city crews and residents to dig out.

Schmidt said full width grading has been completed on 90 per cent of Priority 1 streets, 30 per cent of Priority 2 streets and 20 per cent of Priority 3 streets.

City manager Jorgenson said the focus is on clearing the most affected streets, along with streets that carry the most traffic and those "strategically located" in a neighbourhood. 

He said neighbourhoods adjacent to open areas like parks or newly developed areas have been the most snowed in, because blowing snow tended to pile up in those areas.

Residential bus routes and feeder roads will be cleared first. In neighbourhoods with grid streets, every second east-west street and every second north-south street will be done during the first pass.

Remaining streets, including back lanes, will be cleared after the initial pass and then the process of hauling away snow ridges will begin.

"It's our objective to restore mobility to key streets in every neighbourhood, city wide, in the next nine days or less," Jorgenson said.

Snow piles in school zones are set to be removed next week.

Residents are not required to move their vehicles during snow clearing but are encouraged to do so if possible to give crews more space.

The city has posted a schedule for snow clearing at saskatoon.ca/snow. It will be updated as the work progresses.

City blows through snow reserves

Crews have been working around the clock since the snow started to fall on Nov. 7 and the city is enlisting any contractors who can help.

"We'll take all the contractors that we can possibly get into the system," he said. "It isn't a case where we're going to cap it, it's a case where we're going to stop when we're done."

Jorgenson said it's too early to have specific cost numbers, but he did say this effort will cost more than the $3.6 million the city has in its stabilization reserve for snow.

"One of the first things we take to the new council is funding strategies and options for the operations that we're talking about," he said.