Edmonton roads saw cold wind gusts, heavy snow and bumper-to-bumper traffic early Friday morning making for a slow and tedious commute.
Edmonton police told CTV News that between 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., there were 42 crashes that caused property damage and five injury collisions. Those numbers more than doubled since Thursday, according to police spokesperson Karen Carlson.
The city had up to 80 plow trucks out to keep traffic moving, but part of problem with Friday's snowfall was the timing. According to city crews, the heavy snow started to hit between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., right around when rush hours begins.
"Our priorities for this afternoon's drive home are hills and bridges, particularly in the River Valley, as well as freeways and major arterial roads," said Bob Dunford, city director of roadway maintenance. "Once the winds stop blowing and the snowfall ends, our crews will be able to get a better handle on plowing and sanding other priority routes."
Recently there was talk about budget cuts for snow removal in the city this year. The proposal included the possibility of crews removing less snow on recreational sidewalks and residential bus routes. The city has said that should not affect how major streets are taken care of for now.
"The roadway plowing (and) sanding... there is no change to the policy on that," said Dunford.
The city said its goal is to have all roadways plowed within 48 hours after the end of the snowfall.
The Edmonton International Airport also had its share of problems Friday. Dozens of passengers were affected by a string of Air Canada Jazz Calgary flight cancellations.
"We got bumped this morning...we were supposed to be on a 6:30 a.m. flight and they cancelled that," said Calgarian Jon Cobb.
Other flights saw delays between 30 to 60 minutes.
"We're still managing the runways fine," said Traci Bednard with the Edmonton International Airport. "The challenge for us is that there's weather at other centres as well."
A winter storm warning is still in effect for Edmonton, which includes strong wind gusts and heavy snow into Saturday afternoon. The warning also includes central and northwestern Alberta.
Conditions are not expected to greatly improve until late Saturday evening. By Saturday afternoon, Edmonton will have seen about 20 centimetres of snow.
With files from Scott Roberts and Joel Gotlib
