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UPDATE: Severe road drifts and ice causing traffic issues

Jan 13, 2020 | 10:33 AM

2 p.m.

All roads in the Township of Spallumcheen are open.

The township asks people continue to drive with caution as several roads in the south sector are narrow.

The AIM (non-Township) portion of Grandview Flats North remains impassable.

11 a.m.

The Township of Spallumcheen says Matheson Road has now reopened.

The cold weather combined with Sunday’s snow has created very icy road conditions in many areas of the North Okanagan.

One driver called us mid-morning to say the highway from Vernon south to Kelowna was “sheer ice” and the “worst conditions he’s seen in 50 years of driving.”

Another caller said 25th Avenue in Vernon from 34th Street down, was particularly bad Monday morning.

“There is ice on both sides of the road. I could only do about 40 km/h each way,” the caller told Vernon Matters.

Drivers should slow down and use caution.

The road conditions led to several bus routes in the Vernon School District delayed or not being serviceable this morning.

Meantime, severe road drifts caused by drifting snow has made travel on some roads in Spallumcheen difficult — and in the case of Matheson Road — impassible.

“The following areas are affected: Matheson – Closed (Impassible); Hallam – Single Lane; Parkinson – Single Lane; Schubert – Single Lane; Grandview North – Single Lane (AIM section is impassible, eight-foot snow drifts); Grandview South – Single Lane. All other roads in the south are reduced to single lane,” a news release from the township said.

The municipality says priority one roads are all open and they are working on side roads and pushing back the snow drifts in the south.

Vernon Matters received reports of several incidents on the highway south of Okanagan College on Sunday during the heavy snowfall.

Reports say a tanker truck spun out just south of Kal Lake Lookout turnoff, and a vehicle was upside down in ditch near Bailey Road.

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