Flooding on highways, city roads as rain melts snow
Posted February 11, 2013 5:26 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – The melting snow and rain have turned some Toronto streets into lakes, while areas north of the city deal with freezing rain warnings.
Sections of the Gardiner Expressway and parts of the Don Valley Parkway were flooded early Monday morning, with the rain combining with melting snow.
Southbound on the Don Valley near the Bloor/Bayview exit a large puddle had formed early Monday morning, creating hazardous driving conditions.
This has left the Public Works Department busy clearing out catch basins in order for melting snow to be removed from the streets. Workers are concentrating on low-lying areas and underpasses where water tends to pool, hoping to clean it up before it freezes.
The City has also asked the public to be aware of ponding in curb lanes while driving, and to help out by clearing catch basins outside homes.
Monday morning’s rain created another difficult commute for drivers, and followed last week’s snowstorm which dumped nearly 30 cm of snow on the city, and caused hundreds of accidents, slowing the commute to a crawl.
A freezing rain warning is still in effect for areas north of the city such as Newmarket, Barrie and the Northern York and Durham Regions.
That warning has ended for most of Toronto, Durham and York, as the warm temperatures have turned the icy pellets into regular rain.
By Monday night colder air is expected to move in and snow flurries are possible, ending mostly by Tuesday morning.
