Crews work to reopen highway north of Toronto after major snowstorm hits cottage country
CTV
Crews are still working to reopen Highway 11 north of Toronto after parts of Ontario’s cottage country were hit with upwards of 140 centimetres of snowfall over the weekend.
Crews are still working to reopen Highway 11 north of Toronto after parts of Ontario’s cottage country were hit with upwards of 140 centimetres of snowfall over the weekend.
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CP24 on Monday that crews hope to reopen the highway, which is current closed between Orillia and Huntsville, by noon today.
“Road crews and cleanup crews, (the Ministry of Transportation), are working diligently. The vehicles, hundreds of vehicles, that were stranded there because of impassable roads have been removed,” he said.
“There is still significant amounts of ice accumulation. We are waiting for the salt to really start engaging in that ice to melt it off and get that down to an asphalt service.”
A state of emergency was declared for Gravenhurst, a town located in the Muskoka area, this weekend following a winter storm that dumped more than 100 centimetres of snowfall on the region.
Emergency crews were forced to pull people from their cars after they were stranded on area roadways.
“It is a pretty scary situation. You may be in blowing snow, limited visibility. You may be on a live lane and there is traffic coming behind you,” Schmidt said.
