Snow-route parking ban being lifted at 6 a.m. Thursday

The city is clearing its snow route parking ban 12 hours early.

The parking ban will be officially lifted at 6 a.m. Thursday, meaning motorists can once again park along routes marked with snow-route parking ban signs.

The ban was put in place at 6 p.m. Monday for the first time in three years following a dump of snow over the weekend.

City officials said2,595tickets of $75 each were handed outby 4p.m. Wednesday to motorists who failed to move their vehicles. Eleven vehicles were also towed.

Parking officials will continue to enforce the ban until 6 a.m. Thursday.

"Over the last few days we've been dealing with 24.6 centimetres of snow," said Bill Biensch, manager of roads maintenance. "I think we did really well, we've had a lot of snow, it fell over a number of days, but we continued to clear streets."

Windrows thepiles of snow built up along the sides of roads will be left in place, said Biensch.

The temperatureisforecastto rise above 0 C by Friday.