Ottawa's snow-clearing crews are doing a good job cleaning up after what's so far been a snowy, slippery and slushy winter, according to the chair of the city's transportation committee.

Residents have complained about dangerous sidewalks and puddle-clogged roads caused by the mixed bag of weather so far this season.

Coun. Keith Egli, chair of Ottawa's transportation committee, said Ottawa's 20-year average is around 92 centimetres of snow from October to mid-January.

So far this year, the city's received 169 centimetres.

"Winter's been quite challenging already. It's been different from last winter. Snow certainly came earlier and it's coming more [frequently]," he said Friday, referring to the two or three massive storms that hit the city last winter.

"I think staff have done a good job this year of responding to the different environments we've had, from regular rain to freezing rain to snow."

Egli said the best thing residents can do is call 311 to report flooding or other problems on their street so city crews can address the issue quickly.

Eye on savings

After four straight winters with snow-clearing deficits, Egli said it's too early to tell if the city broke even in 2016.

He said the city has already acted on some of the measures approved by council last summer to improve snow clearing, such as "reverse plowing," or changing plowing routes so certain streets aren't always cleared last.

The city is also monitoring overtime and salt use more carefully.

And it's finalizing an agreement to borrow a New York City garbage truck equipped with a plow for a trial here, as well as installing plows on 12 parks department trucks to be called into action during major storms.

The transportation committee will receive a report in June about how effective these measures were.

One cost-saving measure that won't be tested is holding off on plowing side streets until 10 centimetres of snow has fallen instead of the standard seven-centimetre threshold, after councillors rejected the idea.