Storm causing major issues on Saskatchewan roads and highways

Drivers across Saskatchewan were dealing with slippery roads and highways Tuesday — unless the roads were closed due to the weather.

Just after 5 p.m., every highway into and out of Regina was closed.

The Trans-Canada was closed west to Mortlach and east to Balgonie, Highway 11 was closed to Davidson, Highway 6 was closed to Southey and Highway 33 was closed to Kronau. The entire Regina Bypass also was shut down.

Travel wasn’t recommended on a number of the province’s major highways, including the Trans-Canada from Balgonie to Sintaluta, Highway 11 from Davidson to Saskatoon and Highway 16 from Saskatoon to the Alberta border.

Just north of Balgonie #Sask. heavy winds blowing snow. Vis down your 0in places @MurphTWN @KMacTWN #ShareYourWeather pic.twitter.com/UFZQiSZ7Ag

— Alan McLauchlan (@AlMclauchlan123) November 16, 2021

“Please heed the warnings against travel,” Staff Sgt. Jason Sauve, the commander of the White Butte RCMP detachment, said in a media release. “The snow is hitting hard right now. Our officers are being dispatched to motor vehicle collisions and semis that have slid off the road …

“If you don’t have to be on the roads tonight — don’t be.”

Drivers also were urged to avoid many of the highways in west-central Saskatchewan. Travel wasn’t recommended on many highways in the Kindersley-Rosetown area all the way to Saskatoon.

Andy Duhaime has been driving semis for about three years now and he said there’s a group of them trying to navigate the weather.

“We’re doing about 35 kilometres an hour now driving on the shoulder because it’s not as bad,” Duhaime said. “The lead truck in front of us actually jackknifed right in front of us.”

He said in terms of ice on the roads, this is one of the worst he has dealt with.

“It’s so icy I can’t even touch the throttle. If I press the throttle, I just start spinning tires and I’ve got everything locked in,” Duhaime said.

Saskatoon tow truck driver Brydon Brunsch said it was a wild day for him and his staff.

“We’ve been kind of all over,” he said. “There was an accident out on the highway involving a tractor-trailer and a bunch of cars. We’ve been out to there and then (there’s) lots of small fender-benders around town.”

A Regina Transit bus got stuck just south of the Albert Street underpass during the storm on Nov. 16, 2021. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

In Regina, crews were out applying ice control compounds on some roads and plowing some high-speed roads to keep them passable.

“When the storm ends or when the snow stops falling and the blowing snow kind of subsides, if there is enough accumulation of snow — which would be five centimetres — then we would trigger a systematic plow, where we would plow the roads in a systematic fashion starting with the Category 1 roads,” Tyler Bien, the city’s manager of roadways and seasonal operations, said during a conference call.

Bien encouraged drivers to slow down and plan a route as city crews got into what the city calls “storm response mode.” Crews are working 24 hours a day to keep the roads open.

“We’ve been preparing since October for this, transitioning equipment from their summer roles into the winter roles, making sure our staff are trained up on what they need to and we flipped over to the winter shift starting Nov. 1,” Bien said.