Lethbridge Transit back to full capacity, no plans to clear snow windrows

“We cleared all of the priority one, two, and three snow removal routes. We didn’t clear them, but we windrowed them all, and all of the priority one snow plowing routes had anti-icing done.”

Monday night and throughout the day on Tuesday, crews have been working on sanding roads throughout the city.

There are, however, no plans to clear the windrows that have piled up in the middle of the streets.

Campbell says snow removal operations are very expensive, so the city has elected to let mother nature take care of that.

Starting on Wednesday, Environment Canada is calling for daily highs at or above 10 degrees every day this week.

Transit:

Transit Manager Kevin Ponech says they made the call on Sunday night to cancel all transit services due to the heavy snowfall.

Now, however, the situation has improved.

“We made the determination [Monday] night that there was enough capacity out there in the road clearing and everything that we could go to full service this morning, so we had some minor detours that were happening this morning, but they have been cleaned up and we’re back to regular transit.”

He adds that cancelling bus services is not something they would normally do after a heavy snowfall, but given how early in the year it was, the city was not properly equipped to handle it.

“If we get a 40-foot bus stuck, it’s not trying to get around a small vehicle anymore. If a bus goes completely sideways on a roadway, it can completely block a roadway.”

The windrows have been a slight annoyance for bus drivers over the last couple of days, but Ponech does not believe they have significantly affected the timeliness of the busses.

Parks:

Staff have been working in several city parks and other public areas following the snowfall.

“It was a heavy snowfall and the trees [still have] leaves, so we had some broken branches and we’re trying to get to those as quickly as we can,” says Parks Manager David Ellis. “Some of the streets are clogged up so we can’t get to all the residential complaints yet, but we’re working on it.”

If you see any downed trees or fallen branches on the ground, you can phone 3-1-1 to inform City of Lethbridge employees.

If they are touching electrical wires, they will be handled by the electric utility staff instead.

by David Opinko

Lethbridge Transit back to full capacity, no plans to clear snow windrows

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