"In total, there was over 25,000 cubic meters of snow taken away from Tallinn during the holiday period and snow transport is set to continue throughout the entire week on main roads and smaller streets. Therefore, we ask drivers to be patient and react positively to the temporary parking restrictions - they are required to keep streets clear of snow," Svet told ERR on Monday.

The deputy mayor noted that snow removal on Vabaduse puiestee will take a total of three days. Removal will begin on Männiku tee on Wednesday and is set to take two days.

"Snow removal on the streets of Kadriorg will begin on Tuesday and it will ramp up on Wednesday," Svet noted, adding that there were some 100 cars working on snow removal during the holidays.

"Our contractual partners started their work during the first snowfall around 4 a.m. on December 23 and they worked throughout the holiday period. Some preparatory gravel sprinkling on more dangerous hills was done on the evening of December 22," Svet said.

Deputy mayor: Partners were fined for incomplete work

Svet said the city cannot be completely pleased with its contractual snow removal partners. "We have issues for some roads, where the snow piles reduced the number of driving lanes - Vabaduse puiestee and Männiku tee. There were issues with operative snow removal at crossings and public transport stops, as well," Svet said.

"These issues have been fixated and we notified our partners of financial sanctions, which will reach them soon. Let it be known that paying fines does not clear them of their obligations to clear sidewalks, crossings, public transport stops and roads," the deputy mayor said, promising to turn more attention to stops and crossings in the future.

Snow became an issue for garbage collection

Argo Luude, Tallinn city council EKRE political group member and board member of Eesti Keskkonnateenused AS, which manages garbage collection in Tallinn, told ERR that the capital city's roads are generally not an issue for garbage collectors, but private property roads have been problematic.

"The places the city has to manage are generally accessible. The problems begin where there are access roads to private properties, where the property owner should be responsible for road management. The maintenance vehicles do not show up there in some cases. In that case, garbage trucks might have a hard time getting through," Luude said.

He noted that the areas around garbage containers have not been cleared of snow in some cases. "You can access the containers with a vehicle, but if they are containers, which need to be pushed to the garbage truck and the snow is not cleared, you will not push that container no matter what," Luude said.

He noted that if snowfall continues over the next few days, the roads managed by the city can also become problematic.

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