While no snow lies on the ground in the Lower Mainland as November comes to a close, that was not the case last year when the region was pounded with snow.
On this date last year, B.C.’s South Coast was buried in more than 30 centimetres of snow throughout the evening, which caused extreme delays on almost every major roadway especially Highway 1, spurring Lower Mainland residents to dub the day “Snowmageddon” on social media.
For some commuters, it took more than 12 hours to get home from work and some had to sleep in their cars when the Alex Fraser Bridge was shut down.
Some are questioning if the region’s officials and services are prepared for the inevitable incoming snowfall.
“We can’t go through that again this year,” Surrey city councillor Linda Annis told Global News. “Lesson learned. It seems each and every year in the greater Vancouver area, we get stuck with snow problems.”
Days after the chaos in early December 2022, two Metro Vancouver city councillors, Surrey’s Linda Annis and New Westminster’s Daniel Fontaine, called for a “snow summit” to discuss a coordinated approach to snow storms but nothing came of it.
“This time last year, our roads and bridges ground to a halt, showing just how unprepared we were as a region,” Fontaine said in a press release.
“Our call for a snow summit was an attempt to get everyone into the same room and make sure we didn’t grind to a halt again this winter. But, the summit never happened and we were assured by the province and the region that they were putting reports together in time for this winter. But, we’ve heard nothing, so are we better prepared for this year’s winter weather?”
Global News reached out to the B.C. Ministry of Transportation, passing along the concerns heard from the two city councillors.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and its maintenance contractors are ready for winter conditions on Lower Mainland bridges and highways,” a spokesperson said.
“During the storm of last November 29, as much as 30 cm of snow fell, most of which accumulated over a short three-hour hour period during a very heavy afternoon commute. This was an extraordinary event from which the ministry has taken lessons.”
The ministry said after the storm, staff worked with road and bridge maintenance contractors throughout the Lower Mainland on ways to improve how roads can be cleared during busy traffic hours. The ministry plans on placing heavy tow vehicles during a storm event to clear stuck commercial and passenger vehicles so snow plows can get through.
It also said it will be placing plows and sand trucks in areas “where they are less likely to be impeded by vehicles unprepared for winter conditions.”
TransLink also says it’s ready for the upcoming winter season. The transit authority is testing out new winter-rated tires this year on about 500 buses, which will, hopefully, make a difference in performance and reliability.
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