Snow Removal

Snow and Winter Road Maintenance

Actions Following Snowfall Events

The City of Yellowknife would like to inform residents that during heavy snowfall, our priority is to ensure safe driving conditions on high-use, high-priority roads. To maintain traffic flow, snow may need to be pushed from the center of the road toward the curbs. This can create snow ridges across driveway entrances and cause snow to accumulate on sidewalks, which residents will need to clear. If possible, we encourage residents to assist with sidewalk clearing. As per Highway Traffic By-Law No. 5055, please avoid shovelling snow from driveways or ridges back onto the street, as this can create traffic hazards.

Winter Road Maintenance Activities, Methodology, and Priorities

The City performs three winter maintenance activities to improve road traction and ensure the safety of pedestrians and drivers:

Sanding: This increases traction on slippery surfaces, with sand primarily applied at intersections, turning lanes, and hills.
Snow Plowing: This levels driving surfaces covered with fresh snow or hard-packed, uneven areas.
Snow Removal: This involves scraping down snow and ice and hauling it away.

Road Prioritization System

Snow and ice management are prioritized based on traffic, safety, and environmental considerations:

Primary Priorities: Freeways, major arterial roads, emergency routes, main bus routes, and roads near environmentally sensitive areas.
Secondary Priorities: Remaining arterial roads, additional bus routes, roads in the Central Business District, streets near schools, routes to prioritized City facilities, and other emergency routes.
Tertiary Priorities: All other City roads, City-owned parking lots, and alleyways.

Crews may work on multiple priority areas simultaneously. For example, a sanding truck might apply sand on top-priority roads while a loader clears a community arena parking lot. Resources are allocated strategically to balance priorities, maximize equipment use, and ensure efficient operation.

We appreciate your patience as we carry out snow removal across the City. If snow removal on your street isn’t scheduled soon, we’ll assess the situation and may use a grader to improve road conditions. In the meantime, please drive safely.

Snow Removal Details

Process: Snow removal involves using graders, loaders, and snow-hauling trucks to clear snow and ice from roads.
Season: Typically runs from December to late April, with adjustments based on temperature and snowfall.
Frequency: Residential areas are usually serviced once per season, while the downtown core is cleared twice.
Notifications: Residents are informed of upcoming snow removal via radio ads and signs placed 24 hours before removal.
Timing: Snow removal begins at 12:00 a.m. and occurs early in the morning to avoid conflicts with motorists, pedestrians, and children at play. Expect bright lights and noise from heavy equipment; please be patient, as this timing is chosen to minimize disruptions. Additional seasonal staff and contractors support this operation.
Parking: Residents must move parked vehicles by midnight on the scheduled day to avoid towing.
Traffic: Expect delays in snow removal areas and consider alternate routes if possible.
Driveway Entries: Snow removal may result in a drop-off at driveway entrances, typically 100-300mm (4-12 inches) in height, depending on accumulation. Residents may need to create a ramp from the driveway to street level, as this is not provided by the City.
Driving Tips: If driving before snow removal is complete, please keep to the right of any snow piles in the street center.

The City thanks you for your patience and reminds residents to use caution in snow removal areas and avoid passing moving equipment.

Snow Removal & Garbage Pick-Up

The City of Yellowknife needs your cooperation with snow removal and garbage pickup in your area. Please ensure streets are clear of obstacles for operators to perform snow removal in the early hours of the morning. Signs are placed 24 hours in advance in areas of snow removal so residents are aware snow removal will be taking place. The City would also like to remind residents that once garbage bins have been emptied to return them to your property so streets are clear for snow road maintenance.

The City appreciates your assistance in this matter to ensure a smooth snow removal transition.

For a map of snow plowing and sanding priorities, please visit the CityExplorer map tool.

Snow Removal from Sidewalks

See our Sidewalk Cleaning page for information on snow removal from sidewalks.

Snow Removal Schedules

The snow removal schedules are now completed for the season. If residents have questions with regards to snow removal or would like to flag a street or neighbourhood that requires immediate attention, please contact the City of Yellowknife’s customer service desk at (867) 920-5600 or raise your concern via Click and Fix YK. Please note that the snow removal team will take into account current road conditions as well as the overall work plan for snow removal when assessing and addressing the issues raised.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are the roads so rough this year?

This season’s weather patterns have been very problematic for the planning and execution of snow maintenance activities. The fluctuation between temperate to extremely cold weather conditions forced snow removal to halt in January, putting great strain on our operations. Packed snow has now softened, which has caused ruts on the roads. Major snowfall in a short period added to this challenge.
On residential streets, the addition of snow from private property onto roads has added to this issue and has caused large bumps and patches, which take longer for staff to fix. This disposal of snow is against the City’s Highway Traffic By-law.

What is the City doing about the road conditions?

Why isn’t the City fixing the rutting on many City Streets?

The City of Yellowknife is working to fix ruts, however specific conditions are needed to fully clear the ruts. Typically, there are parked cars that have to be removed by residents or towed to ensure the area is clear and can be scraped. The City does scrape roads at regular intervals to level out rutting, but vehicles tend to continue to follow the ruts, which blows the bladed snow back out of the rut.

Why doesn't the City just plow all roads constantly?

Why doesn't the City hire more contractors to help with snow removal?

Why doesn't the City hire more staff to do more snow removal?

As mentioned in the question above, the City of Yellowknife must complete snow removal within the allocated budget resources. If the City were to hire additional staff, a large number of new equipment pieces would also need to be purchased to see a significant difference. Additional storage space, which the City currently doesn’t have, would be required to store more equipment pieces. At this time, the budget does not support the hiring of new staff or the purchasing of new equipment or storage space.

Why doesn't the City budget for larger snow events?

Why does the City still do snow removal the same way?

Why is the City doing low priority areas at this time?

The City of Yellowknife strategically plans how it removes snow based on the capacity of staff and equipment, and the impact on residents who use the roads. Major roads like Franklin Avenue and Old Airport Road are more difficult to clear, as they must be sectioned off and closed. Equipment must be gone early in the morning so it does not affect the morning commute. Consideration for emergency vehicles and safety concerns also cause difficulties, as roads cannot be completely closed and cleared all at once.
Due to these considerations, City staff are deployed to lower traffic areas of the city to maximize the amount of work that can be done on a daily basis. This is why snow removal schedules include a high priority road, a secondary road and a tertiary road.

Historical Data Set

Snow Maintenance Activities

The City of Yellowknife’s snow maintenance activities consist of snow plowing and maintenance, street sanding, and snow removal.

Each activity has a service level based on a road priority system. These can be seen in City Explorer.

This priority system considers multiple factors, such as:

Emergency services and public transit routes.
Impact on community at large.
Equipment and staff levels.
Overall budget.

Snow plowing and road maintenance (grading), which is completed on a daily basis, is relatively quick and covers a large area of town in a shorter amount of time. This is done throughout the winter months, from the first snowfall until asphalt is bare in the spring.

Snow removal is the complete closure of a street with advanced notice. It is slower and requires more staff and equipment. Approximately 400-600 meters of snow removal can be cleared per shift on main roads like Franklin Avenue and Old Airport Road due to the width. On smaller streets, snow removal can range from 600-800 meters per shift. This depends on complications such as parked cars and the amount of snow placed on the roadway from residents.

The regular snow removal schedule is approximately 18 weeks. This accounts for snow removal on Franklin and Old Airport Road multiple times due to its importance and lower priority streets having one instance of snow removal. There is a window of flexibility to accommodate cold weather shut downs, like the community has seen this year.

Large snow events mean service levels increase, which are reflected in staff overtime hours and increased contracted costs. These events can usually be accommodated within approved budgets or within the Public Works and Engineering departmental variance.

Road Maintenance-Snow Removal