THUNDER BAY — Despite the heavy snow over the past 12 hours, Thunder Bay’s roads manager says a pair of road closures due to flooding in the Intercity area are slated to reopen.
The city closed Carrick Street between 11th Avenue and Hewitson Street on Tuesday. Hewitson Street itself was also closed.
Ian Spoljarich, Thunder Bay’s roads manager, said Carrick south of the Harbour Expressway reopened as of Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, the city sent out an update saying that Carrick and Hewitson Streets will reopen later in the day.
The flooding was due to a quick rise in temperatures earlier in the week while infrastructure like culverts and catch basins were still frozen, according to the city. Friday morning’s snowfall, Spoljarich said didn’t really impact further efforts in the affected areas, but it could potentially pose a problem early next week, as temperatures are expected to rise to a high of 8 C by Monday after dropping to lows of -23 C over the weekend.
“The issue may come on Monday when we see the plus-five, plus-eight temperatures potentially, we're going to see that rapid melt again,” Spoljarich said. “So, we may see some localized flooding in certain areas and then we'll have to go try to clear those best we can as well.”
“It's just what freezes over the weekend will determine what happens on Monday.”
As for the rest of the city, Thunder Bay was digging out after Friday morning’s snowstorm. Road clearing on main thoroughfares and bus routes began at 4 a.m., he said, adding that once the priority routes are done, work will start on side streets.
Sidewalk plowing, Spoljarich added, started on main routes at around 5 a.m. and will generally follow the same format as the road clearing.
The city expects to have the roads cleared by the end of the day Sunday, he said, with sidewalks to be done by Monday.
