City to issue tickets for parked vehicles impeding clearing work on snow routes

By Lethbridge Herald on February 22, 2023.

Snow shovellers clear sidewalks and driveways Tuesday afternoon along 6 Avenue South. The snow is expected to end overnight, before frigid temperatures begin to warm heading into the weekend. Herald photo by Ian Martens

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Welcome back to winter! Just a week ago, City crews were patching potholes with an asphalt recycler but thanks to the fury of Mother Nature, snowplow crews began operating 12-hour shifts Monday as winter returned.

City transportation manager Darwin Juell said Tuesday Phase 1 snow routes were declared Monday morning and starting tomorrow, residents can expect to be ticketed in residential areas if vehicles left in Phase 1 parking lanes impede clearing efforts.

Jules said during three snow events in November and December, 1,200 non-compliant vehicles were given warnings – or as the City said in a Monday press release “courtesy reminders.”

The courtesy ends today, however. To deal with the snow situation, the City has gone from eight-hour to 12-hour shifts and has crews working 24 hours a day as of Monday morning to clear snow from Phase 1 routes.

The City has about 12 snowplows and nine are on the road, plowing Priority 1 arterial roads, Juell said.

Due to the amount of snow, snow route plowing was delayed on Phase 1 plowing into residential areas until Wednesday even though a declaration was made Tuesday.

Phase 1 plowing to the right efforts begin this morning “and there will be tickets placed on those vehicles. We’ve had three different snow events where we declared and placed warning tickets in those 25 kilometres of roads,” added Juell.

On Tuesday evening, graders were being brought into the downtown to windrow snow but it won’t be removed from there and the hospital until the weekend because the City is too busy with plowing, he added. 

Jules said about 20 centimetres of snow has fallen here which is a bit more than anticipated but close to what was expected.

In its Monday release, the City said “snow routes can become active any time during the season whenever snow creates unsafe driving conditions, as determined by City Transportation Operations.”