The Roads and Parking Services team has worked tirelessly to restore the transportation network, and light is at the end of the tunnel, Ottawa!
Forecast and conditions
Today will be a mix of sun and cloud with a chance of flurries, and winds will be 20 kilometres per hour gusting to 40 near noon, causing blowing and drifting snow in localized areas of the city. Looking ahead to the weekend, the forecast remains stable with a chance of flurries, and temperatures are expected to rise on Sunday. On Monday, the temperature is expected to reach above zero, and there’s a chance of flurries during the day, and snow is possible at night. At this time, minimal accumulation is expected.
Transportation network conditions and our response
Supervisors continue to monitor the transportation network. The focus remains on sidewalks and snow removal. Crews are working 24 hours a day on restoring the transportation network and snow removal. There is still a lot to accomplish, but the team is making progress, and their hard work is paying off. Your continued patience and support are appreciated, as a complete cleanup will take weeks.
The sidewalk network remains snow packed, and the team is working nonstop to restore them; however, they currently do not meet the City’s Maintenance Quality Standards. Crews have been using blowers to widen and clean up the sidewalks and on the weekend are expected to fully transition to blade attachments. They will continue to plow/scrape the remaining snow and apply materials to help restore them. Meanwhile, work continues cleaning up bus stops, crosswalks, intersections, pedestrian island and corners.
We expect the transportation network will be restored and align with the City’s Maintenance Quality Standards at the end of this weekend. As such, the Significant Weather Event will be lifted at 7 am, Monday, February 24, and winter operations will return back to normal.
Snow removal operations
The team continues their work, day and night, on snow removal operations throughout the City. Since Monday night, crews have removed more than 90,000 cubic meters of snow using over 300 semi-trailers and 900 dump trucks to haul it to our six snow storage facilities across the city. To put that into perspective, the amount of snow removed would fit into the Aberdeen Pavilion and then some—and we’re just getting started! Due to the sheer volume of snow and size of the snowbanks, snow removal operations are taking longer than usual.
