City blames lengthy cold spell for icier than normal roads

At a certain point during prolonged, frigid temperatures, there’s not much the city says it can do to keep the roads from getting icy.

Although crews cycle through Category 1 and 2 roads every four hours, the liquid salt and sand mix loses its effectiveness below -12 C to -16 C.

Norman Kyle, director of roadways and transportation, said Regina has 10 sanding trucks cycling through the city, night and day. They also cycle through the lower category roads, like collector roads, bus routes and near schools every eight hours.

“The snow and ice is falling, it’s getting packed into ice. At the cold temperatures, it packs up harder, quicker than it would at the warmer temperatures. With the cold temperatures, the salt not being (effective), it’s harder for the material to adhere to the road,” said Kyle.

While it’s not as effective during the extreme cold, the city is still using the liquid salt so that when it does eventually warm up, it should help melt the ice faster.

Kyle explained for most of the winter, Regina didn’t have a lot of snow and ice but in the last few weeks when it did get more snow and ice, the mercury also dropped to the extreme cold level. Other factors like wind and consecutive snowfalls can blow away or cover up the sand/salt mix.

“This is a typical problem that Canadian cities face when the weather gets this cold. This is not unique to Regina but when it gets this cold it is very hard to do ice control,” said Kyle.

The prolonged, frigid weather Regina has experienced this February is rare according to Environment Canada.

“If we continue on this long it may very well be the coldest February since 1936. At least when I look at this week coming up I see nothing but Saskatchewan sunshine and crisp and cold,” said Meteorologist David Phillips.

Kyle added, if Regina could see a day where it warms up to -15 C with some sunshine, drivers would notice an improvement on the roads.