Restoring mobility to residential streets

Administration briefed City Council late this afternoon about the plans for clearing snow on residential roads, resulting from the severe storm that brought an incredible 30 to 40 cm of snow in Saskatoon over the weekend. The plan for snow clearing was presented to all City Council members.  

“With just a few Priority streets remaining to be cleared, we can now focus our efforts on residential streets.  We’re coming to residential streets, and it’s our objective to restore mobility to key streets in every neighbourhood, city wide, in the next nine days or less,” says Jeff Jorgenson, City Manager. “Every day since the snowfall beginning on November 7, our crews have been working around the clock, making progress day and night, and we’ve now hired additional contractors to help us get to you as fast as possible.” 

As of today, we have 260 road crew members rotating 12 hour shifts, operating approximately 125 pieces of equipment, including plows, graders, sanders and sidewalk equipment. Today, clearing started on residential streets in Kensington and streets within Stonebridge are being cleared this evening and throughout the night. Tomorrow, crews will move to key streets within Rosewood, Evergreen, Brighton, Erindale, Arbor Creek, Hampton Village, Montgomery.  

“Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures, so the residential snow clearing schedule continues to evolve as we bring more and more contractors on board,” says Jorgenson. “We will be working simultaneously throughout the entire City, focused on beginning with the streets worst affected and clearing residential streets in all neighborhoods in a sequence where the streets carrying the most traffic, or are strategically located, are addressed first.” 

After the initial pass through, crews will then go back to clear any remaining streets and following that, will start the process of loading and hauling away the snow ridges in front of homes.   

“This effort will be a snow removal operation never before seen in our City,” Jorgenson adds. “This approach will provide the most mobility, most quickly, throughout the City.” 

Residents are not required to move their vehicle, but if able, crews will appreciate more space to complete the work and the ability to clear streets more fully.  

Back lanes will also be prioritized along with the residential snow clearing.  

“In my lifetime, I’ve yet to see a year like 2020, presenting our City with these significant challenges,” says Jorgenson. “Helping each other out, lending a hand to those in need, and seeking creative solutions will lead to great innovation and bring us out on the other side.”  

More information on our process for snow clearing will be updated mid-day tomorrow, including a schedule for the first nine days of residential snow clearing. This information can be found at saskatoon.ca/snow 

School Zone Snow Removal  

Crews are planning to remove piles of snow left by graders (windrows) from all school zones next week. This will provide space for vehicles parking or dropping off and picking up children.   

Saskatoon Transit  

Transit has resumed modified service on all routes. Detours and adjustments are needed on some routes due to road conditions and normal routing will resume as streets are cleared. Access Transit continues to provide essential trips only where road conditions permit.  

Transit users should consult the real-time app Transit or Google Maps Transit on desktop or SaskatoonTransit.ca for route information and service alerts.  

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