Councillors have received an update from our roads crew about ongoing storm cleanup.
Good evening,
As of 5 pm this evening, the Ottawa Airport reported 36 centimetres of snow and it’s still falling! The Roads and Parking services team has been going for over 24 hours treating and clearing our transportation network, and they’re not done yet! The work will continue overnight and into tomorrow. They truly are Ottawa’s winter warriors.
Forecast and conditions
A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect for the Ottawa region. Periods of snow will continue tonight with another of 5 to 10 centimetres possible. The wind continues to be strong at 40 kilometres per hour gusting to 70, causing blowing and drifting snow in open areas, particularly in the rural parts of that city.
Conditions remain hazardous and non-essential travel should be avoided. If you must be out, please exercise extreme caution when using the transportation network.
Public Works has now de-escalated its emergency command centre to a “monitoring” posture.
Our response
Supervisors will be monitoring the conditions of the transportation network tonight and overnight. All resources are deployed. Crews will continue to treat sidewalks, arterial roads, bus routes, the Transitway and the winter cycling network. They will also complete their work in residential neigbourhoods tonight and continue overnight into tomorrow. Meanwhile, our colleagues in Parks Maintenance will also be out in full force, clearing City facility parking lots (with a priority on Fire and Paramedic stations) as well as lots serving recreation centres.
Our sidewalk crews are out in full force and the team has switched to blowers to deal with high accumulation amounts and blowing snow. The use of blowers also requires a second pass to scrape the sidewalk clean after the blower has been through. As a result, it takes more time to clear the sidewalk network to the standard we typically maintain.
As a reminder, we expect to be responding to this major winter weather event for several days as operations are taking longer than usual, and once the snow stops, the team will shift to cleanup efforts.
An extended winter weather parking ban remains in effect
A Winter Weather Parking Ban is in effect until tomorrow, Monday, February 17, at 7 am. The extension to the standard winter weather parking ban is essential to allow crews to finish clearing and treating residential streets. Once the parking ban has been lifted, we encourage everyone who can – even those with eligible parking permits – to try and find alternate parking. When vehicles are removed from our streets, the Roads and Parking Services team can clear snow efficiently to create a wide-open roadway.
Snow removal operations will resume
There is a lot of snow on the transportation network! The Roads and Parking Services team recognizes that roadways are narrow, and the snowbanks are high. We are aiming to resume citywide snow removal operations as soon as cleanup from this winter storm is complete.
Next steps
Roads and Parking Services will continue to monitor this system and the transportation network through the evening and overnight. There is still a lot of work to do, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as the team continues to respond to this major winter event.
We are committed to keeping you informed on the team’s progress as well as snow removal operations, and I will provide another update tomorrow morning.
Thank you for your support of our winter operations.