The City of Vancouver emerged from its holiday shutdown today to announce that more than 260 city staff have been redirected from other city projects to address the city’s icy roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks.
In addition to the 260 redeployed staff, over 150 additional staff have been brought on to salt and sand residential streets, and additional trucks have been hired to assist. The new focus is on parts of the city where there is higher elevations and likely to be more residual snow and ice.
So far this winter season, city crews have used between 6,500-7,000 tonnes of salt which is more than triple the amount used in the last two winter periods combined (approx. 1,000 tonnes each season).
To date, the City of Vancouver has received over 1,800 requests for service related to snow and ice through 311 and VanConnect and staff have cleared more than 1,300 of them. If snow and ice is an issue on your street, report any areas of concern through the VanConnect app or by calling 311.
And if you want to get started on your own sidewalk or driveway, starting tomorrow morning free salt will be made available at 10 fire halls around the city that you can access for free between 9:00am to 8:00pm. Please bring your own bucket and shovel to pick up some of the salt.
Last modified: January 3, 2017
