Now that the first serious snow fall of the season has smothered Cranbrook with a white blanket, the business of snow clearing is once again before us.

And improving the safety of the public is behind a City of Cranbrook campaign asking residents and businesses to help keep your streets and sidewalks clear of snow and ice this winter.

“Regularly clearing ice and snow from your sidewalks and driveways will allow much easier access to your property by the fire department, RCMP or paramedics should an accident or other emergencies happen,” says Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services Chief Wayne Price, adding, “it also will make walking easier for our local mail and newspaper carriers and the public at large.”

Residents are also encouraged to avoid pushing or blowing snow from their sidewalks, driveways and any windrows back into the street, after the city plows have passed by.

“It creates issues for our snow removal crews, as the plow will need to make an additional run down your street to clean it up. That additional run increases the city’s costs with additional staff time, fuel and equipment wear and tear, not to mention delays in getting to other areas of the city that also need to be plowed,” explained Public Works Director Joe McGowan.

Clearing snow is not just the responsibility of the City Public Works department, which does the best it can with the resources available to keep the community moving during the winter months. Responsibility also lies with each resident and business owner to help clear around their home or business.

“During and following major snowfalls, our snow removal operation runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week and operates with a small fleet of vehicles; four salt/sand trucks with belly plows, two graders and two loaders,” said McGowan. “With this schedule and the equipment we have, it is reasonable to expect most areas of the city to be cleared within three or four days of a snowfall, depending on the amount of snow and how fast it comes down.”

The City of Cranbrook has a comprehensive Snow and Ice Control policy in place. A copy of that policy is available on the City’s website – www.cranbrook.ca .

City of Cranbrook Snow Removal Policy

As this winter season approaches, we want to remind you of the City of Cranbrook current Snow and Ice Control procedures to better understand why the city clears snow the way it does. The policy in place clearly identifies four levels of priorities for streets for city crews to follow:

STREETS

Classification “A” – FIRST PRIORITY

Major streets, hospital zones, roads that access emergency service facilities, roads with severe grades and transit routes will be cleared first. In some instances, snowfall is heavy enough and continual during the plowing process, that once these routes are cleared crews need to start them over again. That often causes a delay in getting to other areas of the city.

Classification “B” – SECOND PRIORITY

This includes collector streets, the central business district and school zones.

Classification “C” – THIRD PRIORITY

This includes other residential streets within the city whose immediate need for snow and ice control is not as important. Vehicles can move around with limited congestion at suitable speeds.

Classification “D” – FOURTH PRIORITY

The remaining streets, drives, crescents, lanes and alleys where traffic volume is relatively low. Traffic is able to proceed at lower speeds in these residential areas.

SIDEWALKS

Sidewalks also have a priority system, but do not get cleared until the streets are in good enough condition that Public Works can shift personnel to snow clearing on select public sidewalks. As personnel are freed up from roadway snow removal, the city’s practice is to run one and sometimes two machines on sidewalks, beginning in the downtown core. Residents are responsible for clearing windrows in front of their properties; the city does not clear those. Residents are encouraged not to clear windrows from their properties into the streets; instead move the windrows onto your yard or the boulevard. It is also important to remember that by policy of the City of Cranbrook, Public Works does not clear Rotary Way.

For additional information about the City of Cranbrook Snow & Ice Control procedures, please contact: City of Cranbrook Public Works Department 250-489-0218.

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