WESTLOCK – Arterial roads in Westlock County will be cleared of snow within three business days, while crews have up to a week to clear the streets of the municipality’s hamlets.
Those are some of the new guidelines added to the nine-page Transportation Services Policy 3200-005 passed 7-0 by councillors at their April 25 meeting — the document was previously in front of councillors at their March 23 committee of the whole meeting, as well as the April 11 regular meeting.
The document, which spells out the municipality’s “role in maintaining safe travel on county infrastructure by performing regular road maintenance and snow removal on rural roadways”, had been held back for further work as councillors wanted to see service levels added. Coun. Isaac Skuban had previously asked for the revisions to define a “standard” regarding snow removal timelines while noting that “if the weather isn’t good, we won’t always be able to meet that standard … especially in the winter.”
“The changes I thought were really good. It was cleaned up nice,” said reeve Christine Wiese.
“Me too, it should answer any questions,” added Coun. Sherri Provencal.
In a follow-up interview, CAO Tony Kulbisky said they’ve discussed the policy and timelines with public works staff and grader operators “so everyone has a clear expectation for when snow removal will be complete.”
Arterial roads are listed as the No. 1 priority and will be cleared within one to three business days, while collector roads are second on the list and will be cleared in three to six business days. Local and hamlet roads are next and will be serviced in five to seven business days, while roads to graveyards will be plowed within a week to 10 days. Community hall approaches and parking lots are sixth on the list and will be cleared only on request within 10 to 14 days, while private driveways with snowplow flags, will see service in five to 10 days.
“And then we can measure our own response following a major snow dump to see how accurate it actually is. Before we had no standard to measure up against,” said Kulbisky April 26. “Now we have a standard and if we have to tweak it in the future, we can. I think the schedule we proposed to council is pretty achievable and I made sure we consulted with our grader operators and they felt that it was a fair estimate of what they could do.”
Kulbisky said the “guys did pretty well” clearing county roads this past winter, noting the cold snap in late December “when it was minus 40 and beyond” definitely slowed them. In addition to snow removal, Policy 3200-005 covers grading standards for the municipality.
“Hydraulic hoses snap in those extreme temperatures, so people have to be realistic. If it’s unsafe for our operators to be out there and our equipment is failing, then I’m sorry, we won’t be able to get it done immediately and they’ll have to wait for a little bit better weather. But I think most people get that,” Kulbisky added.
