Regina snow route parking ban to take effect Tuesday

Regina is blanketed in white after about 28 centimetres of snow fell over the weekend.

City crews have been working to clear snow on major arteries, cycling through roadways like Ring Road, Victoria Avenue and Albert Street as the snow continues to fall.

Chris Warren, manager of winter maintenance, said the city hasn't dealt with a heavy snowfall since November of 2012, when 33 cm fell over three days.

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His team is currently in "storm mode," he said. The goal is to keep the city's busiestroads open and passable.

Warren saidonce the snowstops falling, crews will reset and a "systematic plow" will begin.

Snow route parking ban

A snow route parking ban will be in effect starting at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

The Snow Routes are:

• Victoria Avenue, between Broad Street and Winnipeg Street
• Winnipeg Street, between Victoria Avenue and College Avenue
• College Avenue, between Winnipeg Street and Arcola Avenue

Blue signs with a white snowflake identify where there is no parking during the 24-hour ban.

"If there are cars on thestreet, will we be issuing tickets," Warren said. Tickets are $120.

Category one-four streets are expected to be cleared by Wednesday night.

Residential streets, which fall into category five, will not be plowed until Thursday morning, Warren estimated.

To handle the snow-clearing,26 graders, 11 plow trucks/sanders, threefront-end loaders and sidewalk machines have been deployed.

Warren said the endeavour willcost the city about $500,000.

The city is encouraging drivers to give snow equipment extra room and to slow down around graders and ice control trucks.

Environment Canada still has a snowfall warning in effect for the region, with about 5 to 15 cm of snowexpected throughout Monday and into the evening. Snowfall is expected to gradually taper off tonight through Tuesday..

The Regina Police Department says there were two collisions with injuries on Sunday afternoon and 14 other collisions between Sunday morning at 6 a.m. and Monday morning at 10:30 a.m.

With between 26 and 28 cm, more snow fell over the weekend than the average total for March, which is 18.8 cm. It was also a record snowfall for March 4, which was previously 6.9 cm.