‘Definitely no break:’ Ottawa road crews plow through week’s second winter storm
Posted Jan 19, 2022 12:34:00 PM.
A one-two punch of winter weather in Ottawa and the Valley has left the staff who operate snowplows and other snow-clearing equipment little chance to rest.
Parts of the city were still clearing away the effects of a record-breaking snowfall at the start of the week, when snow began falling in the early hours of Wednesday, January 19, 2022.
“Definitely no break; we were still focused on cleaning up our residential sidewalks through out the day yesterday and last night,” said Bryden Denyes, the City of Ottawa's area manager for urban roads. “We started receiving snow around 1 a.m., so we immediately switched some of our resources to our priority road network, priority sidewalks and winter cycling network.”
Ottawa and surrounding counties were under a winter weather travel advisory, issued by Environment Canada, Wednesday morning. This latest storm is thanks to an Alberta clipper; they usually don't bring much moisture, but this one is targeting eastern Ontario with snow and more.
“It's targeting us with another three to five centimetres, on top of what we got through the overnight hours,” said Jill Taylor, CityNews Ottawa meteorologist. “And then here's the thing — it'll switch over to some freezing rain, drizzle, or perhaps just plain rain, as our temperature rises to near that freezing mark.”
City crews have essentially spent two full days removing snow from the record-breaking storm at the beginning of the week, and now face several more hours of snow removal and surface treatment with salt, to prevent the snow and possible freezing rain from icing up Ottawa's roads.
“It's been a very challenging storm to deal with, with another storm right on its back,” Denyes told CityNews Ottawa. “Staff are out working; we will continue to work until everything is cleaned up.”
After today's snow and potential freezing rain, Denyes said the plan is to go back and finish up the remainder of residential sidewalks, before switching to snow removal for the weekend.
