Still waiting for your street to be cleared? Take heart
Citizens who live on quiet residential streets should see some navigable pavement this morning, a City of Victoria public works official said Wednesday.
Ed Robertson, the city’s assistant director of public works, said every street, including roads serving only the residents, should be plowed today, weather permitting.
“They won’t necessarily all be cleared curb to curb, but every road should have at least one clear lane,” Robertson said.
Victoria crews tackle snow clearance based on a three-level priority system, moving down the list only when the more important areas have been cleared.
Other municipalities follow similar triage systems. In Saanich, major and collector streets, certain transit routes and major residential hills are cleared before minor collector roads and residential streets.
The City of Nanaimo plows emergency routes and arterial routes first, then collector routes. It aims to clear residential streets and culs-de-sac within 96 hours of a snowfall.
In Victoria, the first priority is major arterial roads such as Douglas, Blanshard or Quadra streets and access routes for emergency services such as Royal Jubilee Hospital or Victoria police headquarters. Also included are hills and bridges.
Robertson said city crews remain on the Priority 1 surfaces until they are cleared. If snow continues to fall, crews remain on those routes, for days possibly, to keep them passable.
“We stick with the Priority 1 roads and we don’t move off them until they are clear,” he said.
Priority 2 includes secondary collector routes, roadways and entrances to seniors’ facilities and homeless shelters.
Robertson said left-turn lanes at major intersections are also left to Priority 2. During the Priority 1 phase, crews concentrate on just keeping those major arterials clear, leaving left-turn lanes until later.
Priority 3 are residential streets, city-owned parking lots and parking stalls with meters, and the bicycle lanes identified by painted lanes on the road surface.
Robertson was confident those Priority 3 surfaces would be cleared by today.
The only holdup might be if temperatures fall below freezing. That would put crews back to the Priority 1 roadways to spread salt.
Robertson said some people have grumbled about the attention given to clearing the separated bicycle lanes on Pandora Avenue and Fort Street.
He said those lanes, which are protected by curbs and have their own traffic lights, are kept clear by street-cleaning crews using modified street cleaners too small to be of any use on a road. Road surfaces are kept clear of snow by the crews that maintain and perform construction work on the roads.
Robertson said the three-level priority system was adopted by the city 12 years ago. A review and update is planned for this year.
Meanwhile, Robertson said he spent time driving around over the past few days and noticed businesses and homeowners alike clearing their fronting sidewalks, as required by city bylaw.
“An awful lot of people seem to be doing a great job of clearing their frontages,” he said.
“Kudos to everyone for clearing those sidewalks and making it safe for everyone.”