With eyes on snow in the Tuesday night forecast, the City of Victoria says a fleet of vehicles and crew are standing by to tackle whatever flurries may fall.
As soon as snow starts falling, the city goes into a priority-one level response, which focuses on clearing main thoroughfare roads, access routes to hospitals and keeping emergency services active, said Zane Bourk, manager of streets operations. Crosswalks, along with downtown bus stop sidewalk areas, are also addressed during this stage.
The city then goes into a priority-two response, which would clear snow on collector streets and around shelters, and then finally to level three where crews would tackle residential streets, bike lanes and other sidewalks.
Bourk said the city understands everyone has travel needs, but residents exercising patience during snow events goes a long way. If people are able to work from home or don’t have to be on the roads, the city official said it gives crews space to do their jobs.
“Just because you haven’t seen a plow, doesn’t mean that we’re not actively trying to clear snow,” he said, noting it can sometimes take numerous days to get into residential streets after the snow stops falling. “We hugely appreciate everyone’s patience while we do so.”
If at any time the weather changes and conditions worsen on main roads, the city has to go back to a priority-one response, Bourk said.
“The biggest challenge is always changing weather,” he said, adding the snow accumulation can vary across even a small municipality like Victoria.
The city has a fleet of vehicles ready to respond. Those include specialized plows that can handle different surfaces, salters, skid steers with sweeper and bucket attachments, blowers and, finally, workers with shovels in hand. Crews are on standby heading into Tuesday night, with more than 60 employees ready to be deployed to streets, pathways and other public areas.
The city is expecting snow to start trickling in at 10 p.m., with up to five centimetres landing in the city overnight before the intensity of the flurries ramps up again on Wednesday morning. Dry weather leading up to Tuesday meant crews were able to brine the streets, which will help plows clear any snow that does fall right down to the asphalt.
“Just because you wake up in the morning, look out the window and it looks clear, it doesn’t mean that the roads are going to stay clear,” Bourk said.
The city’s emergency warming centre has been at capacity overnight each day since cold weather reached the region prior to the weekend. The warming centre, located at the Victoria Curling Club (1952 Quadra St.), is open on Tuesday night.
READ: Drivers beware: 10 cm of snow expected as storm lands on Vancouver Island