Road crews move deeper into communities hit with heavy snow
Posted Dec 11, 2013 5:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
With the temperature declining, snow plowing is rising in some of Calgary’s hardest hit communities from the recent dump of snow.
Plows are getting deeper into northeast communities, such as Skyview Ranch, moving snow off routes so that commuters can get out of their own driveways.
The city is currently in Day two of a seven-day roads plan and Manager of Roads Maintenance Bill Biensch, says crews usually get into these kinds of communities on day four, but they’ve managed to get in earlier.
“We did have our major snow storm, which occurred on the Sunday night, but we also then had a second snow storm, where we saw on Monday and Tuesday, which reset our plan to day 2,” he said, adding the main goal of the crews is to make roads passable.
“We’re not removing snow, we’re just trying to allow traffic to move so we’re applying materials, typically to road surfaces to improve traction, we’re not necessarily removing all the snow.”
Resident Steve Sims said he’s relieved crews are out and about, but he does with they would’ve arrived sooner, such as 10 days ago, when snow was up to the hood of his car.
“I think the City needs to definitely revisit its plan, I understand the importance of the main thoroughfares, but I would say the main thoroughfares are kind of useless if you can’t get any residents out of their homes,” Sims said.
Other residents share that sentiment, such as Sean Hyderi, but he also said there’s already been improvement compared to a year ago.
“It’s actually a big progress now from last year, there wasn’t that much,” Hyderi said. “They weren’t planned properly, but this year, they’re actually doing a pretty good job.”
As for other communities where the main issue is icy roads as opposed to driving through snow, Biensch said help is on the way.
“We typically will be getting into those areas on days four, five and six and we’re applying materials to try to increase the abrasiveness of the surface to try and get traction,” Biensch said. “But again, we live in a winter city and we have to learn how to drive in winter conditions.”
