Snow falling on 6th Avenue a day after the first major snowfall of the season in Kamloops/via Paul James
The City of Kamloops says its doing its best to try to clear as many roads as possible before the severe cold starts to take effect.
Updating council on the first major dump of the season, Civic Operations Director Jen Fretz concedes they’re being challenged by the continued snowfall.
“Our goal being to clear all of the arterial roads before the cold snap,” Fretz told council on Tuesday.
“If we can get all of the snow off of the main roads before it gets cold, it’s a whole lot easier for us to maintain those roads if there’s still snow or ice left on them.”
Temperatures in Kamloops are expected to dip to -13 C on Wednesday night, then not rise back to that temperature until at least Monday, with some overnight temperatures expected to hit as low as -25 C.
Kamloops forecast for January 10th to 15th, 2024/via Environment Canada
Fretz says their focus is on the main arterial roads like Fortune Drive, Columbia Street, and the Summit Connector.
“After that, we will work on then work on the collectors and locals,” said Fretz, who also took time to thank folks in Kamloops for the patience as the first heavy dump came down on Monday evening.
“We actually had lots of grace from the public in that we actually didn’t any requests for service.”
Fretz says the City’s full contingent of work crews remain on the streets around the clock. She is asking drivers to allow the plows to move through traffic as quickly as possible, while also asking everyone to be patient with their crews.
“Just for everybody’s information, about fifty per cent of our staff group has one year of experience plowing snow, or less,” admitted Fretz.
“The only way to get experience plowing snow is to plow snow.”
