When winter weather strikes people rely on their tax dollars to go to work clearing those roads and making them safe.
Adam Saltesz, the assistant director of Public Works for Brazeau County, says when a big snowfall comes, crews are on the roads at 6 a.m. working on clearing them. They work until 6 p.m. each night and go for seven days a week.
“They’re out on the roads before most of us even get out of bed in the morning, which is pretty impressive,” says Saltesz.
He says the recent snowfalls have been particularly difficult for the County to work on. “The freezing rain event we recently experienced caused our roadways to become quite icy, and when compounded with the extended periods of extreme cold, winter maintenance activities became much more difficult. These low temperatures we have seen recently are not only hard on the equipment, they also decrease the effectiveness of the salt used for roadway de-icing purposes. In the de-icing world, the practical working temperature of salt is generally considered to be above -15°C. Below -15°C, the ice melting speed of salt becomes impractically slow and ineffective.”
He says the first priority is the paved roadways, which they try to keep as close to bare as possible.
“We try to get them cleared within eight hours of the snow event,” he says. They try to get to the paved roadways quickly to prevent snow and ice from getting packed down by people travelling to work.
However, he says it’s important to note that Brazeau County is not responsible for any of the numbered highways in their area. Those highways, such as 22, 39, 620, 621, or any other numbered highway, are under the jurisdiction of the Alberta Government. Saltesz says the government has a contractor in the area that they hire to do those roadways.
After the paved roads are done they focus on the graveled roads. Saltesz says typically they leave 10 cm of packed snow on the gravel roads before they worry about them. “But in heavy snowfall events like we’ve had [recently] we’re out there, regardless, pushing snow around.”
Once the gravel roads have been looked after they switch over to clearing the hamlets, public sidewalks, and private driveways. “That’s normally our third priority,” says Saltesz. They also have 20 employees who monitor the weather, organize the response, and do other planning around the whims of Mother Nature to ensure the roads are safe.
During smaller snowfall events, he says they try to take care of the driveways and the approaches at the same time. However, when there is a big event, they don’t have time to do that.
Saltesz says the County has eight graders and five plow trucks within their fleet of equipment. Using this equipment they do the roadway snow removal, the de-icing and sanding, approach clearing, as well as sidewalk and walkway clearing.
He says typically it takes about seven days after a big snowfall for the County to get the roads all completed. In total, there are 1,000 km of road in the County that need to be plowed. When taking into consideration that the drivers have to go up one lane and down another, that’s 2,000 km of driving to clear all of the roads.
“If you were to drive 80 kms an hour with each of our machines on each roadway it would take 25 hours to clear the roads,” he says. And while the drivers aren’t going 80 km per hour, Saltesz says using that kind of measurement puts things in perspective for how much work the drivers have to do.
The budget for snow clearing is always set the winter before the current season, which can sometimes make it tricky for them to predict what needs to be set aside. However, Saltesz says they look at historical data and generally have a pretty good idea of what is required.
The past few years have been more difficult to predict as the weather patterns have been changing a bit. This year there is also concern about getting salt and sand as supply chains have been interrupted and slowed down. The cost of salt and sand have also seen an increase, but Saltesz says no one needs to worry about the County not having enough money in their budget for those costs. The safety of the residents remains a priority for the County.
Saltesz says for those who are interested in knowing where the roads have been plowed, they have an interactive map on their website that can track the plows. Also, they have a program where they offer clearing for private driveways in the county. However, Saltesz says that people need to remember that clearing driveways is the lowest priority for the County, especially during a heavy snowfall.
If someone is interested in signing up for the private driveway clearing program they can call the County office at 780-542-7777.
Phone calls made to the Drayton Valley Public Works Manager were unreturned by the deadline for publishing.
