02/20/2025
Dear Neighbors, here is the city's quick update on the snow removal work done as of Feb 20, along with the plan for the next few days 👇🏻
"Clean-up efforts and salting where required on the secondary road network continues with special focus on dead ends, courts, laneways, and other areas of concern where snow removal has already started. Snow removal will need to continue into next week.
Snow removal for the downtown core/rear laneways is ongoing and is considered priority work.
Primary roads continue to be assessed to determine if additional clean up or salting is needed. Overall, these roads are in very good condition.
Windrow service continues as needed on a complaint basis. I would note certain challenges with respect to resident expectations. At some point we will need to wind down the windrow deployment to focus all available resources on the sidewalks.
The most significant current challenge relates to sidewalks along regional roads and certain neighbourhoods. Given the accumulation, lack of snow storage space, and depth of snow on either side of the sidewalks, plowing has become less effective. As a result, we have had to convert a number of plows to blowers which, although slower, will allow the sidewalk machines to navigate the deeper snow. Sidewalk clearing will remain our highest priority activity going into the weekend.
Snowbanks are very high across the city, and this is hampering operations. Please encourage residents to be patient and drive safely."
Michael Shiu - Councillor, City of Richmond Hill
