Lloydminster has seen an increase in snowfall over the past few weeks and city crews are continuing to prioritize road clean up.
The city currently has a winter maintenance policy that has been in effect since 2013. The policy prioritizes snow removal based on the amount of snowfall and the roadway. For example, residential areas are a low priority and snow removal or plow will happen typically once a year.
Director of Transportation Services Dave Henning says that for snow removal the roads are consistently evaluated based on their conditions. He adds that there is a distinction between snow removal and snow plowing.
“Snow plowing is actually taking the snow and moving it to the side and piling it on boulevards where boulevards are available. Snow removal is actually taking the snow piling it to the center and hauling it away.”
Henning says that top priority roadways including highways will be cleaned up within two days of the snowfall.
“If we get five centimeters of snow we will go out and plow our priorities routes and after 10 centimeters of snow we will remove it in the downtown core.”
For a full residential snow removal it would cost the city upwards of $1 million.