There was a “gap of time” when no city plows were on the streets Wednesday night, according to Saint John’s public works director.
Social media was flooded with complaints as streets throughout the city turned into skating rinks.
Video showed several cars spinning out of control as they tried to navigate Westmorland Road on the city’s east side.
Saint John Transit pulled its buses off the road for the night and city police urged people to stay off the roads.
“There wasn’t a lot of snow that fell, there wasn’t a lot of rain that fell, but the combination of both with the cold temperatures of the asphalt certainly caused some icy conditions,” Tim O’Reilly said in an interview on Thursday.
O’Reilly said the city plans its approach to weather events based on the latest forecasts.
In this case, the forecast was calling for a “couple centimetres of snow” with no changeover to rain, he said.
“We weren’t predicting it was going to need an around-the-clock response to the event, so there certainly was a gap in time where we did not have people in,” said O’Reilly.
“As soon as the situation changed to what actually happened, we reacted by bringing crews in to respond to it.”
That gap from when the day shift crews left to when others were brought in was approximately four hours, he said.
O’Reilly said had the forecast lined up with the precipitation that actually fell, crews would have already been on the roads.
“When we know we have to go plowing, we essentially go to our full plowing response and we respond to the storm and throughout the storm,” he said.
Last night was tough on Saint John roads. But we're on it.
Remember, if you have any specific concerns, you can always count on our customer service line at 506-658-4455 ☎️#saintjohnnb #WinterWeather #skatingrink pic.twitter.com/WEy2rcNKMy
— Donna Reardon (@DonnaReardonSJ) January 20, 2022
Saint John’s mayor took to social media on Thursday afternoon to defend the city’s winter management plan and its response to the weather event.
“Our weather turned quickly and led to road conditions that were some of the worst I’ve ever seen,” Donna Reardon said in a video posted to Twitter.
Reardon said rain slowed the sanding efforts, and the quick freeze put the city in a “tough spot.”
“It went from transit drivers calling to say ‘everything is fine’ to 30 minutes later calling to say ‘hey, we’re stuck,'” she said.
Reardon said public works crews have a big job each storm with more than 1,100 lane kilometres to look after.
She said the winter management plan is good, and they will count on it and the city’s dedicated workforce to “get us through” the winter.
“I want all Saint Johners to know that we’re on it, we’ve got your backs, and we’re going to make sure that we keep Saint Johners safe on the roads throughout what is proving to be a very, very challenging winter,” said Reardon.
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