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Deltans dealing with big dump of snow

Delta residents are digging out after Sunday’s big dump of snow, with round two expected to hit later Monday night.
snow

Delta residents are digging out after Sunday’s big dump of snow, with round two expected to hit later Monday night.

The South Coast was hit with its first blast of winter dumping 10 to 15 cm of snow across most of the region with another 10 to 15 cm expected from late afternoon Monday into Tuesday morning.

City of Delta crews have been working non-stop since the snow started Sunday and anticipate to be working 24/7 for the foreseeable future.

“We got the forecast and got our guys out and started responding to the snowfall mid-afternoon on Sunday,” said director of engineering Steven Lan. “Soon enough with the amount of snowfall, we had all of our equipment deployed and have been working all through the night.”

City crews are clearing public transit routes, major collector roads, select school access roadways and some roads in hilly areas first. Pre-wetting, salting, sanding and snow plowing will be carried out as long as poor conditions exist.

The second priority for crews are select secondary through roads in residential areas, select rural roads and school routes.

Minor residential streets and cul-de-sacs will be done last.

Works yards in Ladner on 64th St. and in North Delta on Nordel Way are fully stocked with 1,500 metric tonnes of salt with access to more if needed.

Delta also has the ability to make its own salt brine, which is used to pre-wet priority routes in anticipation of snow and ice, after purchasing a salt brine system now in full operation.

Delta also added a new tandem axel dump truck complete with sander and plows as well two sanding units and plows were purchased for the existing two-ton fleet.

“The new salt shed off of Nordel has been a huge help especially in terms of our turnaround times for North Delta,” he said. “The forecast is for more snow, so I would imagine we will be spending more time on our priority routes over the next 24 hours or so. Caution and safety is the key. People should be driving slowly and with care given these conditions.”

To stay up to date on road conditions, residents can call Delta’s winter road conditions phone line at 604-952-3820, which provides a voice message every four hours during a snowstorm. Delta will also update its social media feeds.

Delta’s snow and ice control budget for 2018/19 is $339,500.

Environment Canada has a snow fall warning in place for the entire South Coast with more snow beginning late Monday afternoon and continuing into Tuesday morning.

Environment Canada said this second disturbance will spread snow to virtually the entire South Coast with heaviest amounts falling Monday night. Total snowfall amounts will vary across the region with 10 to 15 cm falling in most areas with somewhat higher amounts possible on Vancouver Island.

Delta police are also urging drivers to clear snow from their vehicles or face the consequences of a fine and ticket.

“$10 brush or $109 fine? If you head out today with snow covered windows, or headlight or taillights covered by snow, that’s the fine you could face,” said DPD public affairs coordinator Cris Leykauf. “It’s section 195 (1) (b) of the Motor Vehicle Act, and the offence is ‘Drive While View Obstructed. Yes, this means you have to clear your front, and side windows – you need to see out of them all. One of our traffic officers was out Sunday night and was absolutely astounded to see how many people had just cleared enough of their windshield to see out in front. You need to clear your roof too. The why becomes obvious the first time you need to hit the brakes a bit harder - and the bonus is the people behind you won’t be blinded.”