City crews are still digging out after a huge snowstorm brought traffic to a near-halt Wednesday. About 35 centimetres of snow fell on St.
City crews are still digging out after a huge snowstorm brought traffic to a near-halt Wednesday.
About 35 centimetres of snow fell on St. Albert Wednesday morning, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Kulak, clogging roads and snarling traffic.
Kulak pinned the blame on a fast-moving bunch of moist, cold air from B.C. that whipped through the region that morning. Convection currents pushed this air skyward, creating a massive dump of frozen water – kind of like a thunderstorm with snow. With temperatures hovering around 0 C at the time, much of the snow turned to ice as soon as it hit the pavement.
Public works crews started clearing snow at 5 a.m., said operations manager Bruce Thompson.
"It didn't abate for hours," he said, and their crews ran straight into the morning rush-hour. "It probably couldn't have been any worse timing."
The result was stuck trucks, buses and closed roads everywhere. St. Albert RCMP had to divert traffic around parts of St. Albert Trail due to stalled semis. St. Albert Transit cancelled local service altogether.
What a mess!
Veteran Canada Post delivery agent Karen McGuire tried to deliver the mail in those conditions.
"It was the worst delivery day I've had in 25 years," she said.
Driving a mail truck through snow-filled Braeside was extremely difficult, she continued.
"It was very slippery underneath," she said, and blowing snow made it tough to see anything. "You couldn't see the curbs."
After getting stuck several times, she and a lot of her co-workers had to give up and call it a day.
"We delivered everything today," she said, speaking Thursday.
St. Albert Transit busses got stuck in traffic and at transit stations, according to spokesperson Will Steblyk.
"At some points, the snow was over a foot and a half deep," he said. "We couldn't get our tow trucks to our buses."
While they did have a snow plan, Steblyk said the speed, timing and severity of Wednesday's storm took transit by surprise.
"This was a strong impact right off the bat at the worst possible time," he said.
Local service was cancelled as of 8 a.m., but resumed in a limited form that afternoon. All buses were routed to the Village Transit Station, Steblyk said, with transit workers on hand to direct people to the right buses. Some neighbourhoods, such as Mission, were completely inaccessible. A round trip to Edmonton took up to three hours at one point. Regular bus service resumed Thursday.
St. Albert RCMP responded to about 15 collisions Wednesday, said Cpl. Laurel Kading, one of which involved minor injuries.
"We're pleased the results were not higher than that," she said.
St. Albert Canadian Tire sold their entire stock of 60 snow-blowers by the end of Wednesday, said manager Gord Fletcher, as well as plenty of salt, sand and shovels.
"As soon as we cracked open the doors (Wednesday) at 8 a.m., it was literally non-stop," he said of the snow-blower sales.
City crews have had every piece of snow-clearing equipment running 24/7 since Wednesday to clear the roads, Thompson said, including six plows, all their loaders and about five graders.
"The main challenge is getting the ice off," he said.
Crews had almost finished grading St. Albert Trail and Ray Gibbon Drive as of Friday morning, Thompson said, as well as most of the arterials. They planned to start grading collector roads (bus routes) Sunday, and hoped to have them done in about a week.
He wasn't sure when crews would clear residential streets. City guidelines say that crews generally don't plow these regions unless there is about 13.5 centimetres of packed snow present.
"We are going out to hot spots," he noted, such as hills, and they are laying down sand.
Crews would make their decision on residential plowing after they had finished the collectors, Thompson said.
"It depends on what the weather does," he explained. They'll probably wait for more snow if it stays cold, but would start plowing if it started melting and freezing.
Winter storms like Wednesday's can strike without warning, Kading said, so local drivers should be ready for them. That means putting proper tires on your car and extra time in your schedule to get where you're going.
"Don't rush, because that's when people hit ice," she said.
Snow removal questions should go to public works at 780-459-1557.
