City gets plows, crews ready for first blast of winter

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — “We wanted to assure Calgarians that we are prepared and ready to go.”

The City of Calgary is getting set to tackle the first taste of winter, with at least a few centimetres of snow expected to hit the ground this weekend while temperatures dip close to the freezing point.

After a surprise snowstorm caught everyone off guard last year, it’s a different story this time around.

“I don’t think there’s any good day for a snowfall, but at the end of the day we are prepared for this one,” said Jim Fraser, a District Manager for Calgary Roads. “We’ve got enough staff in place to be able to handle this storm effectively.”

This includes around 40 trucks and dozens of crewmembers, with some of them already putting in a few hours ahead of the weekend.

“We’ve been pre-treating some of our trouble spots, as well as the bridge decks, with a brine just to make sure that there’s some chlorides out there on the road,” said Fraser.

Fortunately, it should not be too bad through the weekend, but the city already has thousands of tonnes of salt and pickle mixture piled up in the depots and more crews on call just in case we get hit with a real snowmageddon.

“We’re likely expecting that (the roads) are going to be wet, they’re going to be slippery,” added Fraser. “We’ve also got 25 graters available to us, and we’ve also put our contractors on notice that if we get more than what we anticipate they’re available to come in and give us a hand.”

So ideally, Calgary will not need to call on crews from Edmonton to drive down the highway and offer assistance.

For everyone else around Calgary over the next few days, just take it slow and steady, so we can smoothly adjust to the winter season.

“You know if we get a large amount of snowfall and you don’t have to be on the roads, stay off the roads,” suggested Fraser. “And stay back from the operators that are operating the pieces of equipment so that you give them enough room in terms of safety.”