The City of Prince George has deployed all available resources to help clear routes as soon as possible following the recent snowfall, which dumped nine centimetres of snow on the city according to measurements at the City Public Works Yard.
Earlier this morning, crews began clearing Priority One and Priority Two routes throughout the city. These operations will continue during both day and night-time shifts through the weekend. Overnight tonight, crews will continue plowing priority routes and move into the Carter Light Industrial Area. Crews will be plowing downtown streets overnight on Sunday to avoid interfering with holiday shopping and Christmas parties during the daytime and overnight tonight.
Per Council’s Snow and Ice Control Policy, the City aims to clear Priority One and Priority Two routes within 48 hours after a snowfall ends. Multiple factors, including temperatures, accompanying weather systems, and total snow accumulation affect operations, timelines, and decisions about equipment deployment.
Priority routes
The City of Prince George’s snow-clearing operations maintain roads and sidewalks in passable conditions throughout winter. During a snow event, City roads are categorized into three snow-clearing priorities, indicated by three colours on the City’s snow clearing map. Council’s Snow and Ice Control Bylaw categorizes the City’s 735km of roads and 189km of sidewalks into three snow-clearing priority routes:
Priority One (red) roads include main arterial roads, downtown roads, priority hills, the hospital area, Civic facility entrances, and priority parking lots and pathways. These routes are often cleared during the nightshift in order to reduce the interference with higher daytime traffic volumes.
Priority Two (green) roads include bus routes that are not main arterial roads, and commercial and industrial roads.
Priority Three (grey) roads include residential roads and lanes, and all remaining civic facility parking lots and pathways. Residential route clearing also takes garbage collection days into consideration.
Heavy Snowfall Declarations
When the Prince George area receives accumulated snowfall of 20cm or more in a 24-hour period, the City of Prince George will issue a Heavy Snowfall Declaration to notify residents that crews will likely take longer than usual to clear the streets. Correspondingly, Heavy Snowfall Declarations extend completion time for crews by 24 hours when the 20cm Heavy Snowfall threshold is reached. An additional 24 hours is added for every 8cm of snow the city receives beyond this threshold.
Parking restrictions
- Motorists are also reminded that parking restrictions are in effect from October 15 to April 15 each year to help with snow operations:
- On-street parking is prohibited from midnight to 7:00am downtown.
- On-street parking is prohibited from 10:00pm to 7:00am on Priority One roads and hills, the Hospital District, and a number of other designated roads.
- On-street parking is prohibited from 8:00am to 6:00pm in residential areas. Parking on the side of the street with odd house numbers is permitted from 6:00pm to 8:00am unless otherwise posted.
- Illegally parked vehicles are subject to a $50 ticket per offence and/or may be towed.
Note: plowing around parked vehicles can slow down operations and create hazards for other vehicles by creating windrows in the street.
Further information about City snow and ice control operations can be found on the City website at www.princegeorge.ca/snow. Residents can also view an online video for an overview of these operations.