Ice and snow complaints surge during week of freezing rain

The City of Edmonton saw a surge of snow and ice complaints last week after freezing rain iced over roads and sidewalks.

Between Dec. 9 andDec. 16, the city's complaint line 311 received 1,367 complaints of sidewalks covered in snow and ice. The week priorrecorded only 320 complaints.

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The mix of freezing rain and temperatures hovering aroundzero left sidewalks in treacherous condition.

EMS said it responded to 72 slips and fallsrelated to icy conditions. On a typical winter day in Edmonton, EMS responds to about fivecalls for such falls.

This month the city issued 798 warnings and137 tickets to property owners in response to complaints.

"Sidewalks are probably one of the hardest hit in the freezing-rain event just because of the lack of traffic on them," said Andrew Grant, general supervisor for infrastructure operations.

Ice on roads eventually melts due tofriction from tires, but not so with sidewalks, Grant said.

"We were constantly putting additional resources into our sidewalks to try to render them safe because we understand that sidewalks are ongoing battle that we're trying to win."

Sand containing a small amount of salt is available for free at the city's district yards and community leagues.

City crews check the boxes regularly, refilling them as needed, Grant said.

As for icy residential streets, city crews started blading them on Monday and hope to be done in a week.