Snow clearing a continuing challenge on P.E.I.

Snow tunnel roads are a worry for maintenance crews on P.E.I. who are trying to make space for water to flow before rain forecast later this week.

The Irishtown Road near Malpeque is one of the worst areas of the province, with snowblowers still working through five- and six-metre drifts to make the roads two lanes.

John Bernard had to use snowshoes to get to his home Tuesday. He had been stuck in Summerside since Sunday. Bernard said when you're always last on the list to be dug out you get good at waiting.

"People are frustrated but I think the way it's going this winter we're used to it," he said.

Cindy Adams runs Cozy Kennel Dog Boarding on the Irishtown Road and she has had dogs stuck there for days after the storms.

"Safety is an issue for us," said Adams.

"We just want to know our customers can come and go freely in the driveway and be able to see when they get out: the drifts get so high at the end. But the plow operators are doing an awesome job."

The Irishtown Road is more like a snow tunnel than a highway, one lane with walls that tower over vehicles, and there is no visibility around corners.

The Department of Transportation says it is very difficult to find a place to move the snow. More than four metres of snow has fallen on the Island since the end of January.

"It's all blower work, and there's nowhere to put it. It's even hard for blowers to move that stuff," said director of highway maintenance Darren Chaisson.

"When the banks are 20, 30 feet high it's really hard to move that material. And it's just slow, slow, slow work."

The next thing on Chaisson's mind is the rain forecast for later this week.

"Our ditches are not open, there's still a lot of frost on the ground, this water has to go somewhere," he said.

"It's just going to go to the low areas, and the low areas are the roads."

Chaisson said his crews will continue work to clear the roads and hopefully prevent flooding when everything starts to melt.