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Photo by Curtis Galbraith.
By Curtis Galbraith
City Hall

City officials say snow plows ran 24 hours a day on the weekend

Dec 3, 2024 | 6:00 AM

Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton says snow plows ran around the clock all weekend.

“They work in a shift-type format, and they are continually being supported by contract snow clearance equipment.”

“All of ours are out working. They continually will work over the next few days to get caught up in areas where we’ve had significant snowfall.”

The city says those contractors are trucks that haul away windrows.

Clayton adds Priority 1 roads are done.

“Our Priority 2’s are almost done. We’re working into the Priority 3’s and we’re on Week B of residential clearing, so that means that the snow removal equipment comes into your neighbourhood. If you are on that map, go to the City of Grande Prairie website or to engage.cityofgp.com, where you can sign up to see when the snow removal equipment is coming to your neighbourhood.”

City Administrator Brian Glavin says plowing on Priority 1 roads starts right after a snowfall and is supposed to be done within 24 hours.

He says there are no concerns about the snow removal budget.

“It was (fairly) mild last snow season. We’re making up for it a little bit this year. Right now, it costs around $250,000 every time we go through a residential snow removal cycle. There’s sufficient budget to cover that.”

Glavin says under current policies, snow plowing starts in residential neighbourhoods once 10 centimetres has fallen. That will go up to 13 next year.

He asks that people not to remove snow windrows on their own.

“We do not encourage that, that is against the bylaw.”

“Depending on the volumes of snow, it can take longer to get those windrows out of place. We can’t get rid of them any sooner. (What) we try to do is that everywhere there is an intersection, making sure that that is open so that we’re impeding the flow of traffic in the intersection.”

Glavin acknowledges some people have to go out of their way to get to their homes.

Environment Canada’s Daily Data report says Grande Prairie received over 27 centimetres, or more than ten-and-a-half inches of snow, over the last four days of November.

by Curtis Galbraith