The City of Kamloops says the challenging conditions were to blame for the havoc on area roads yesterday.
Joe Luison, the assistant operations manager with the City of Kamloops, says their staff did everything possible to prepare for and react to the storm.
“The conditions were ones that contributed to a lot of ice build up,” he told NL News. “With that warm weather trend that we had, the asphalt was quite warm in the subsurface so what it creates was a bit of a melting and freezing action from the bottom.
“So even though the asphalt is warm, as the material lands on it, it goes to compact quite quickly. That is what kind of occurred as much as we tried to put sand on it, it was freezing at a rate that was pretty high.”
Environment Canada says just 1.8 cm of snow fell in Kamloops, though it did lead to dozens of collisions which forced temporary closures of Summit Drive, Hugh Allan Drive, Springhill Drive and Highland Road last night.
“It wasn’t just the city, if you look at our surrounding areas, its not like we were isolated in that snowstorm” Luison said, referencing closures on the Coquihalla, the Okanagan Connector, and Highway 1 west of Kamloops.
“It was a challenging one for most areas.”
He is also asking for patience – noting that the City only has about 14 plow trucks that have to cover hundreds of kilometres of roads whenever it snows.
“Like any first snowfall, I think it did catch a lot of people by surprise as well, so we just got to as a team slow down out there and leave some room and allow the trucks to get out there and do the work,” Luison said.
For the City’s snow removal plan this winter, go here.