Residential snow removal expected to last 2 weeks

It will take crews about two weeks to clear Regina’s residential streets after the recent snowfall.

Norman Kyle, director of roadways and transportation for the City of Regina, said crews finished major roadways Wednesday afternoon and plan to move the residential neighbourhoods Thursday.

Kyle said 60 per cent of the roads in the city is considered category five –or part of the residential road system.

He said it will take a couple of weeks because they’ll only work during the day when people are typically at work and there are fewer vehicles parked along streets.

The city published a map showing the schedule for plowing each neighbourhood.

The lucky first neighbourhoods on the list for Thursday include: Lakeridge, Arcola Sub/Broders Annex, Arnhem Place, Old 33 north/south, River Heights, Lakeview and Albert Park south.

Kyle suggested people move their vehicles if they see their street is on the schedule to make plowing more efficient and consistent.

The plan will see crews out on weekends as well.

Bit of a different story for Moose Jaw

Like most cities, residential streets are taking the back seat when it comes to snow removal. However, Moose Jaw residents might have to wait weeks before their roads will be cleared.

Darrin Stephanson, municipal operations manager for the City of Moose Jaw, said because of the vast amount of snow it’s hard for the city to predict how long the snow hauling efforts are going to take.

“We’d expect approximately two weeks really is going to be the time frame to get through the kinda first four levels of priority before we can really start addressing resident streets in a meaningful way,” Stephanson said.

He adds they were prepared as much as their resources could allow — with four plows on the roads along with front-end loaders and other smaller equipment.

“That’s what our budgets provide for so we’re able to respond with the resources we have within our policy.”

As of Wednesday, he said priority one routes are being addressed along with bus routes and snow haul routes that are attached to priority one lanes.

“When moving four inches of snow that’s one thing — when you’re moving a foot (of snow) — just as most people can attest when they’re moving snow on their driveway it takes significantly longer,” he said.”It’s more of a challenge to do and graders are no exception to that. It is taking time to get through our priority one streets and our snow haul routes.”

On the bright side, Stephanson said bus routes were cleared as of Wednesday morning, meaning city transit is back up and running after a three-day hiatus.

— With files from Britton Gray and Jessika Guse.