News Photo Collin Gallant
A city grader breaks up deep icy rutts along Sixth Street, S.E., on Wednesday morning following an accident on the 300 Block Tuesday that saw a city bus collide slide up on the boulevard hitting the tree pictured.
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Crews cleared snow and broke down ruts on Sixth Street on Wednesday morning, the day after a city bus slid into a tree on the main route across the Southeast Hill.
There, graders knocked down ruts measuring four-to-five inches deep as a priority, though municipal works officials say clearing busy, though non-arterial roads across the city is the focus during moderate weather.
“We have four graders out and they will be for the next week,” said Trevor Funk, the operations manager for the municipal works dept. “If we don’t see a lot more of the white stuff we should see a big improvement.”
When snow falls, road crews prioritize plowing and clearing on main arteries, such as Dunmore Road, Altawana Drive, Strachan Drive, among others. They are classified as “category one” along with hills and bridges, and emergency vehicle routes.
Crews then move to address category two routes: typically school zones, bus routes, the downtown and other more heavily travelled collector roads in residential areas.
Sixth Street is a main route across the Southeast Hill, but like other collector roads has on-street parking, which Funk says can make work more difficult and harder because plows can’t simply push snow to the side.
The current city-wide situation is not much different than other years, he said, but with some added challenges.
“We see rutting on an annual basis, though maybe last year had it a little easier,” he said. “We have seen a little extra precipitation this winter and some freezing rain. That all adds up to ice.”
Bus
City transit officials say the driver of the bus that crashed Tuesday was not injured and minimal service impact was resolved quickly after the afternoon accident.
News reporters observed a shattered front window and badly damaged front end of the vehicle, though the amount of damage was still being assessed by fleet officials. The rear-engine vehicle was operational and running after the mishap.
