New season underway for Edmonton’s snow and ice control program |
October 31, 2025
As winter nears, the City of Edmonton is rolling out its Snow and Ice Control program for 2025. While service levels will remain consistent, additional focus will be placed ensuring residents have important information about the program, including updates to the snow clearing maps and promotion of the service notifications tool.
“Edmontonians deserve safe, predictable and accessible winter infrastructure,” said Caitlin Zerebeski, Branch Manager, Parks and Roads Services. “We continue to take steps to inform residents and help them understand what to expect as they prepare for winter.”
Snow Clearing Prioritization and Service Levels
The City prioritizes when major roads, transit routes, and active pathways are cleared. This year’s priorities, also known as service levels, are consistent with last season. Roadways and active pathways each have dedicated teams and specialized equipment to deliver service.
The roadway clearing priorities, as outlined in the Snow and Ice Control Policy and service levels, are:
- Priority 1: main freeways, downtown business districts and hills - aiming for bare pavement within one day after a snow event ends.
- Priority 2: remaining freeways, arterial roadways, business districts, collector roadways, and Transit Park and Ride access roads to be completed within five days.
- Priority 3: industrial and rural roads are addressed within six days.
- Priority 4 (only completed as part of a Phase 2 parking ban): residential roads and alleys to be completed within 14 days.
The priorities for active pathways, as per service levels, are:
- Priority 1: City facilities and Winter Priority Loop (a network of pathways connecting downtown, Old Strathcona and the University of Alberta) to be completed within one day.
- Priority 2: City sidewalks, staircases, ramps, shared paths, pedestrian bridges, bus stop access, and bike lanes to be completed within three days.
- Priority 3: manually cleared areas, bus stop benches and pads to be completed within 14 days.
- Priority 4: community sandboxes and safe mobility devices to be completed when resources allow.
Roadways and Active Pathways Maps
The popular Roadways Snow Clearing Map displays the status and service level for 12,000 km of roadways and allows residents to see the location of the plows.
The Active Pathways Snow Clearing Map displays the clearing priorities, including the critical Winter Priority Loop, ensuring essential connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists. This initiative highlights the City's commitment to year-round active lifestyles by keeping pathways accessible and safe, providing residents with up-to-date information for winter navigation. During a snow event, the map updates to display the clearing status of the active pathways.
Parking Bans
When a significant snowfall occurs, parking bans are declared to allow crews to clear roads efficiently and effectively. There are two phases of parking bans:
Parking Ban Phase 1
Phase 1 applies to major roads and bus routes. This includes arterial roadways, collector roadways, business improvement areas and bus routes. These roadways are indicated with white “Seasonal No Parking” signage. A Phase 1 parking ban may last four to five days, with crews active at all hours.
Parking Ban Phase 2
Phase 2 applies to residential and industrial roads and, if activated, would occur after a Phase 1 parking ban. While a Phase 2 parking ban can last up to 14 days, the ban only affects individual neighborhoods for approximately 72 hours.
Residents can subscribe to the free Service Notifications service to receive communications on all parking bans specific to their location. Subscribers can have up to five locations and receive updates when their locations are scheduled and completed. Parking bans will also be communicated through local media, social media and other City channels.
“This winter, our goal is to deliver clear expectations and consistency for residents whether they are walking, biking, driving or taking transit,” said Valerie Dacyk, General Supervisor, Infrastructure Field Operations. “When residents give our crews space to work and obey parking bans, we can make sure every lane, path and stop is cleared quickly and effectively, allowing the whole city to move better.”
Vehicles left on roadways during a parking ban may be ticketed $250 or towed. During last season’s parking bans, enforcement officers issued 2,248 tickets.
Don’t Crowd the Plows
City crews need room to operate safely. Edmontonians are asked not to pass plows when visibility is obstructed, to maintain safe following distances and to be patient when plow operations reduce lane space temporarily. These precautions help ensure both crew safety and the efficiency of snow removal. Plows are active at all hours and are shown on the Roadways Snow Clearing Map.
Sidewalk Clearing Responsibilities
Everyone plays an important role during the winter season, and we must work together to keep our streets safe. Be a good neighbour - keep your sidewalk shoveled and move your vehicle during a parking ban to let City crews clear snow from roadways effectively and efficiently.
Under the Community Standards Bylaw, property owners or occupants are responsible for clearing any sidewalk adjacent to their land. Failure to clear sidewalks could result in a fine of $100 plus any remedial clean-up costs the City may incur as outlined in the bylaw. Last year, enforcement officers issued 1,431 tickets for snow or ice on sidewalks.
“We encourage everyone to clear their sidewalks as soon as possible after a snowfall ends. If property owners fail to do so, they may receive a fine and city crews may step in to complete the task at the owner’s expense,” said Carrie Holstead, Superintendent, General Bylaw Enforcement.
Community Sandboxes
To help residents keep sidewalks and walkways safe during icy conditions, the Community Sandbox program provides free sand at 100 locations, including 11 large, centralized sand bins. Locations are distributed evenly across Edmonton. Residents can find sand bin locations and the map at edmonton.ca/communitysandboxes.
Snow Storage Upgrades
Upgrades to the City’s snow storage facilities continue to improve environmental performance, site drainage and overall operations. This season, the Poundmaker Snow Storage Site (184 Street & 107 Avenue) remains closed. Contractors and businesses will need to adjust their routing and use one of the other locations in Horsehills, Ellerslie or 17th Street. Additional information is available at edmonton.ca/snowstorageupgrades. |
For more information:
Media contact:
Michael Steger
Senior Communications Advisor
City Operations
780-220-4458
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