Penticton’s snowplough crews are in for some long days as the city deals with the first major snowfall of the season.
“We’re going to keep them on later tonight and bring them in earlier in the morning,” said Mitch Moroziuk, director of operations. “Our goal is to move as much of this stuff off, because it is supposed to get cold so we don’t want it to harden up.”
Moroziuk said they aren’t worried so much about tonight and tomorrow, it’s the following days when an arctic front is supposed to bring freezing temperatures.
“Our goal is to get as much of it off the street before that happens,” said Moroziuk, adding that they will be sticking to the established priorities for road clearing.
“We we are going to do our bus routes and our arterials, then we move off to the collector and residential streets,” said Moroziuk. “Crews aren’t likely to get to the residential streets anytime soon though.
“Our guys are just cycling back onto the arterials. That’s where our main traffic flows are, so the residential streets aren’t likely going to get serviced.”
Moroziuk said that when he came down Government Street at 9 a.m., just after the crews finished, the road was good, but by the afternoon, the slush was building up again.
“In the morning was quite nice, but it hasn’t stopped snowing,” said Moroziuk.