City streets staff are hoping to have the majority of the snow out of the way before the temperatures rise by the end of the week.
City streets operations supervisor Mick Jones said crews are slightly modifying their approach to clearing residential roads this week by using trucks to plow instead of graders and loaders.
"Just because of the warm temperatures on the weekend, we do want to get the majority of the snow off to the sides of the roads so once it starts to melt we're not dealing with a lot of slush and snow on the roads," said Jones. "A truck can plow considerably faster than a grader-and-loader combination."
With no more major snow events forecast for the week, Jones said the goal is to have residential roads complete by Friday after the prioritized arterial routes, collectors, bus routes and problem hills.
Although Jones said the snow wasn't a huge surprise, since the city follows weather reports.
"It's definitely earlier than usual," he added. Due to the time of year, crews are down a couple of plow trucks which are still getting outfitted with blades for winter use.
"They were still set aside for summer use because once we put the blades on, they can no longer access the paving plant scales," Jones said. "So we were hoping to hold off and still get some more asphalt patching done this year, but with the snow I think they're getting put on now but I don't know when they'll be completed."
Until the roads are clear, Jones stressed safe driving practices for those behind the wheel.
"The main thing is to drive to the road conditions," he said. "Usually we see it every year where the first snowfall tends to catch a lot of drivers off guard and they still tend to drive a little faster than they should be and there's consequences that go with that and they're unhappy."
