Burnaby salt trucks out in force

The wintery landscape doesn't prevent hardy golfers from working on their game at the Burnaby Mountain driving range on Tuesday.

MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER

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Today's snowfall might have caught most commuters by surprise this morning, but by then Burnaby's engineering crews had already been on the road for hours salting the streets.

Tom Ng, Burnaby's acting director of engineering, said they were aware of the possibility of snow in the forecast so about five trucks were on the road all last night performing the city's ice control response—operating salt and brine trucks, all also equipped with plows.

"In general, everything was under control except for the southeast side seemed to have gotten hit extremely hard," Ng said, "and it was very localized in terms of the snow and ice that came down, but it came down quite intense just over the rush hour period this morning."

The biggest problems were in the Edmonds and Canada Way area, with road closures for periods on 6th Street between Edmonds and 10th Avenue and Canada Way between 16th and 10th Avenues.

Ng was not aware of any issues on the steep road heading up to Simon Fraser University, but SFU was warning students that while its Burnaby campus was open they shouldn't head up there unless absolutely necessary.

Once crews realized the situation, with snow and icy rain falling, they ramped up their snow response plan as well, he said, increasing the number of trucks on the road to about nine and shifting most resources to the Edmonds neighbourhood.

With more snow in the weather forecast for tonight, Burnaby will have full crews on all night sanding and plowing where necessary, Ng said.

He advised that people give themselves extra time to get where they're going and ensure they have good winter tires on their vehicles. "One stalled vehicle will create a real nightmare for the rest of the folks."

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com

twitter.com/WandaChow