City prepares for cleanup after vicious winter storm

The City of Regina has some work to do after 126-kilometre-per-hour winds ripped through the city.

“City facilities, including the pedway across from 11th Avenue and the Bank of Montreal building sustained damages, with crews being dispatched to provide a temporary repair to the building,” an email from the City of Regina said Thursday.

“The greenhouse at the Regina Floral Conservatory sustained broken windows, which have been repaired as of this morning. This is just some of the damage we are aware of to city facilities.”

The damage and debris from the pedway have been cleaned up, but in a media release late Thursday the city confirmed that the stretch of 11th Ave. between Hamilton St. and Cornwall St. will be closed for the next week. That is when a private contractor will begin work to repair the damage to the pedway. It is expected to take one day to complete, at which point 11th Ave. will reopen to traffic and pedestrians.

If you’re looking at taking transit, there could be some delays due to current detours in place due to that closure. The bus stops in front of the Cornwall Centre are temporarily closed with buses now waiting on 12th Avenue for the time being.

“We will continue to follow the detour until we receive instructions that it is safe to use,” city transit wrote in a release. “Information has been posted to Twitter and Facebook informing passengers of this temporary change. We encourage residents to use transitlive.com to track their buses and follow us on Twitter for more updates throughout the day.”

It wasn’t uncommon to see damaged trees and broken branches on Thursday morning. As of 10 a.m. the forestry department had received roughly 75 calls.

“The majority of the calls are for branch pickup, but there are few cases where some trees have failed,” the release from the city said. “The main priorities are to ensure that streets are clear and accessible and to respond to any fallen tree endangering the public, for example, a tree fallen on a house or car.”

Streets to re-open Friday morning

The City of Regina says storm conditions and incapacitated vehicles will mean two stretches of road must remain closed until Friday morning.

Courtney St. in the northwest area and Parliament Ave. were both impassable throughout the day Thursday.

The city says crews will continue to work towards the goal of having Courtney St. between Sherwood Dr. and Rochdale Blvd. open by 10 a.m. Friday. The intersection of 9th Ave. N. will be open to make sure drivers can still get to Fairway Rd., Pinkie Rd., and the Regina Bypass.

Parliament Ave. between Lewvan Dr. and James Hill Rd. will also be opened at some point on Friday morning. The City noted that vehicles that are stuck in the road will be towed and left as close as possible to where they were left. That should be within a block or two.