Road maintenance crews from the City of Whitehorse and Yukon government need to be commended for keeping up with Mother Nature, says the general manager of the local school busing company.

Pat Jamieson of Takhini Transport said today the crews have been going flat-out. While everything may not be perfect, area residents can be assured that what can be done is being done, she said in an interview.

'They are working to capacity,' Jamieson said. 'There are only so many trucks, so many drivers, and at what point is burn-out?

'I know how much time and effort is being put into this.'

Jamieson said both the city and territorial maintenance departments have responded as much as can be expected to areas of concern reported by the bus company and its drivers.

But Jamieson said she recognizes it's not possible to cover every square centimetre of bus routes, day in and day out, as conditions fluctuate from rain and above-zero temperatures to freezing at night, and then rain again the next day.

'I don't know of anyone that could have done a better job,' she said. 'I mean, this is the largest community in all of Canada (area-wise).'

Where else, she asked, would a community of 23,000 people be faced with maintaining this much roadway in forever-changing conditions?

Jamieson said bus drivers have been reassured that it's their call to make when assessing the condition of a particular route.

For the most part, she noted, the buses are completing their routes, though one bus did leave the road today. There were no injuries.

There was also a problem with slippery roads in the Wolf Creek subdivision, she pointed out.

She said while the school bus is the safest vehicle on the road, and will hold the road better than any other vehicle, she did ask that parents remind their children to stay back from the areas where the buses stop, in these conditions and any conditions.

They must understand equipment may not stop when they expect it to, she said.

Jamieson said there was a case this week where the driver actually phoned in to ask the office to contact the parents because the child was having trouble making his way from the bus up the driveway, it was so slippery.

Brian Crist of the city's highway maintenance section said today he's had to incur some additional staffing and overtime. For the most part, however, the maintenance staff had already been pumped up to handle the early and large dumps of snow.

It's not so much an issue of maintaining the main arteries, but of the problems created inside the residential areas where the normal policy is to leave roadways snow-packed through the winter.

The snow-pack has melted, then has froze again, and then melted, and then froze again, and so on, he explained.

What's left now, said Crist, is a snow-pack that's turned to an ice-pack.

He said the city tracks complaints of icy road conditions, and gets to them as soon as possible.

With the temperatures forecast to return to normal sub-zero levels over the next day or so, crews will be concentrating on clearing the curbs to remove as much water from the streets as possible, he said.

The Yukon government road report issued at 9:30 this morning says:

ï The Haines Road remains closed due to rain and snow.

ï The Dempster Highway is closed at Eagle Plains because of blizzard conditions.

ï The South Klondike Highway to Skagway is open, but with slippery conditions and some falling rocks between kilometre 58 and 62.

ï The North Klondike Highway is open but travel is not recommended between Pelly Crossing and Stewart Crossing because of slippery conditions.

ï The Campbell Highway is closed between Ross River and Tuchitua, and travel is not recommended between Tuchitua and Watson Lake, nor from Ross River to Carmacks.

ï The Alaska Highway is open but travel is not recommended on the 160-kilometre stretch between Little Rancheria north to Lower Hazel, nor on the 200-kilometre stretch between Marshall Creek to Burwash.