Prince Albert Transit was shut down Wednesday after a heavy spring snowfall forced city crews to focus first on emergency routes before turning to bus routes, with limited service expected to begin Thursday.
Tim Earing, the city’s senior operations manager, said the city’s snow and ice policy requires crews to clear emergency routes first, followed by other priority roads, before bus routes can be brought back into service.
“We have a snow and ice policy that we follow,” Earing said. “So the first, first roads that we need to get clear are our emergency routes, and then we go to our priority routes, and then the second priority is routes, which is the bus.”
Earing said crews were expected to finish the first round of top-priority clearing by Wednesday night and begin work on the next level, which includes transit routes.
“The crews will be pretty close. I would say tonight, in finishing priority ones, we’ll start on priority two,” he said. “So there should be some limited bus service starting tomorrow, I would suspect.”
The shutdown followed one of the more disruptive spring storms the city has seen in recent years, he said. Earing estimated Prince Albert received roughly a foot of snow over a short period of time.
“Well, the emergency routes and the priorities. I mean, I’m not sure exactly how much snow we got. I’m thinking in the neighbourhood of a foot anyway. So it’s a lot of snow to deal with all at one time,” he said.
City staff began work at 5 a.m. Wednesday and were expected to continue until around 8 p.m. before returning again early Thursday.
“The guys, the staff, have been starting at five in the morning,” Earing said. “And, you know, they they time out. We can’t, we can’t run them 24 hours a day. They have lives, and need to have a rest.”
He added: “They’ll be starting again tomorrow at 5 a.m. and we’ll just keep plugging along until, till we get it done.”
Asked whether the city had enough resources to recover quickly, Earing said 13 staff members are dedicated to snow removal and all available equipment was in use.
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, we have a staff of 13 that are dedicated to snow removal. They’re all out working, and the equipment’s all out working,” he said. “So, I mean, yeah, we’re doing the best job that we can with the resources that we have.”
Earing also said residents can help by keeping snow from driveways and sidewalks off the street and by obeying no-parking signs when snow routes are being cleared.
“It’s always helpful for us if they’re not piling their snow, you know, from their driveways and sidewalks on the street,” he said. “And it’s also helpful when we do put up the no parking signs and are going to do a snow route that they don’t park there.”
He said residents with concerns can contact the city’s Solutions Hub.
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
