City staff in Kamloops say this recent cold snap has put a freeze on construction projects.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says it’s virtually impossible to get shovels in the ground on projects in frigid temperatures.

“When it’s cold like that, you can’t pour concrete. You might be able to work on a project that was started in the fall or late last year,” Dixon says.

“I know when I kind of look at the list for inspections each day, it’s a little bit slower than we would’ve seen in the fall, or typically see in the spring. And I would expect if the weather gets nice like they’re saying and we get to seasonal spring temperatures, we’ll see things pick up.”

However, the rate that building permits have been coming through city hall has not been slow.

In the first two months of 2019 more than $15.8 million dollars worth of building permits were approved by city staff. More than $8.1 million of that value has been for residential construction, while just over $6.5 million has been for commercial building.

Dixon says it’s too early to anticipate whether 2019 will be a red-hot year for building, as the previous two years have been. He did say a building permit for the patient care tower at Royal Inland should be hitting the city’s desk soon.

“I would expect to see foundation-type permits for that project to be coming relatively soon. It’s probably the biggest project we’ll see this year, well certainly the biggest project we’ll see this year and maybe the biggest one we see for a long time.”