Hello Erlton neighbour,
What a snowy winter it has been. Through December and January, Calgary received over a meter of snow, more than we have had in many, many years (112 years!!!). As a result, our Roads department had been working around the clock. When the snow eased off, they started to go into different neighborhoods to help alleviate the issues caused by such a large volume of snow.
Determining which neighbourhoods to dig out first has been a question of both empirical data as well as citizen requests. First, calls into 311 are directly fed into a system which helps the City to map the trouble areas. As a result, neighborhoods where many people called in 311 were generally given higher priority compared to those with lower call volumes. In future snow events, please report the trouble areas through the 311 system. You can contact 311 by phone, on the web at calgary.ca/311, or by downloading the ‘City of Calgary 311’ app on your smartphone.
Second, snow piled along roads adjacent to schools is a priority, as many parents are choosing to drive their children. Safety is the number one goal in the snow clearing policy.
The City’s objective is to make all residential roadways passable. In a normal Snow and Ice Control season, a residential roadway is considered passable if snow ruts are less than 12 cm deep. However, in light of the higher than normal accumulation of snow in December and January, the crews, to the best of their ability, used 7 cm as a goal/gauge on residential roads for ruts; this standard has been used to accommodate potential accumulations from future snowfalls.
Finally, if you have any suggestions as my Council colleagues and I move into a discussion on snow clearing, please contact my office at ward09@calgary.ca or 403-268-5330. Thanks for your patience through this winter season and we also encourage everyone to become a Snow Angel. If you know of someone in your neighbour that may need assistance, please help them out. Many of our neighbors may be ill or have limited mobility. Even helping to clear a bit of their walkways or driveways can be a huge help.
Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra