It is an annual ritual of most Canadians – the anticipation of Mother Nature’s first blast of snowy, winter weather.

Staff with City of Cranbrook Public Works are ready to hit city streets when the first snowfall begins. Each year, the city asks residents and business owners to help out by keeping streets and sidewalks clear of snow and ice. Clearing snow is not just the responsibility of Public Works, which does the best they 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.

“Our operations run around the clock during major snowfalls each and every year,” explained Chris Zettel, Corporate Communications Officer with the city. “We have great staff, contractors and a solid fleet of trucks and plows who work hard each year to keep our streets clear. It is completely reasonable to expect that most areas of Cranbrook will be cleared of snow within three or four days, depending on the amount of snow we get and how fast we get it.”

Avoiding leaving your vehicle parked on the street during snowfalls wherever possible will also help make clearing the streets easier for city plows. Residents are also asked to please avoid pushing or blowing snow from their sidewalks, driveways and any windrows back into the street, after the city plows have been by.

The city also stresses the importance of keeping ice and snow cleared from your driveways and sidewalks, especially from an emergency services perspective.

“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,” said Wayne Price, Director of Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services.

For information about how the city prioritizes its street clearing operations, including route maps visit our website and click on ‘Snow Removal Information’ listed under City of Cranbrook Links on the homepage.

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.

City of Cranbrook

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