Skip to content

Public works prepared for winter

So far this year, Barrhead has enjoyed a mild winter with relatively little snowfall. However, when the snow does inevitably start to fall, the Town of Barrhead’s public works department is ready to keep the streets safe for travelling.
Town of Barrhead work crews are poised to keep the streets clear of snow. Here we can see an example of their work as they clear snow use a snow removal machine-dump truck
Town of Barrhead work crews are poised to keep the streets clear of snow. Here we can see an example of their work as they clear snow use a snow removal machine-dump truck tandem to remove the snow from the middle of 50th Ave. after a snow storm last January.

So far this year, Barrhead has enjoyed a mild winter with relatively little snowfall.

However, when the snow does inevitably start to fall, the Town of Barrhead’s public works department is ready to keep the streets safe for travelling.

That is what Ross Brant, Barrhead’s director of public works, said.

The Barrhead Leader decided to talk to Brant after we received a visit from an individual earlier in mid-October, on the day of the first snowfall in the town, complaining about how poorly both the town and county maintain its prospective roads. In future weeks, the Leader will also be talking to the County of Barrhead about how they deal with snow removal.

Brant said he wasn’t surprised to hear that someone had complained about the town’s winter road maintenance even before any actual snow had accumulated on roadways.

“It is something I hear a lot,” he said, adding he often gets phone calls from residents complaining or asking questions about snow removal. “I actually like talking to them about what we do here and afterwards I think most of them understand the challenges we face and think we do a good job of dealing with them.”

As for how public works responds to a snowfall, Brant said it depends on Mother Nature.

For example, he said the last snowfall the town experienced was in mid-November and it was too warm for the snow to actually stick to the road.

“But we did send the sander out because when it’s warm it is a little bit greasy,” Brant said.

In addition to the sander, the town has a small fleet of vehicles and equipment it uses for winter road maintenance, including a grader and two loaders (one with a snow blower and one with a wing). Public works also utilizes a skid steer and three trucks to haul snow.

It is when there is a larger snowfall that it will then utilize larger equipment and actually plow the snow off the road.

“There is a priority list plowing high traffic areas first, starting with our main intersections, our downtown core, the area around the hospital and the streets and avenues that connect to a highway,” he said, adding after the high priority areas crews then start to clear residential areas.

Brant added the two highways 33 and 18, even though they go through the town boundaries are the responsibility of Alberta Transportation and its contractor, Carillion.

If the amount of snowfall is significant, four inches or more and it is clear it is going to stay, town staff will put out no parking signs in the area, giving residents 12 to 24 hours warning, following the priority list.

“But if we really get a big snow storm, with a foot or more of snow, what we will do is just wing everything to the sides of the road, so that we can keep traffic moving and worry about removing the snow later,” he said.

Brant concluded by saying it is important for people to obey the no parking signs.

“It’s just for vehicle and personal safety,” he said. “Things are slippery and streets can get quite narrow and the wind and snowplow rows can be hard to remove. Plus we try to keep all the gutters clean so when spring does arrive the water has some place to go.”


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks