York Region winter road maintenance program under way

With December’s weather bringing a dose of winter reality after the recent mild spell, York Region is reminding residents that its winter maintenance program is staffed and equipped at full capacity, with road crews available to remove snow and to salt as required to keep roads clear.

The Region's Transportation and Works department is responsible for the maintenance of approximately 1,050 kilometres of arterial roadways, including snow removal, sanding and salting.

As part of an $11.5 million winter maintenance program, the Region has adopted the following:  The use of a salt-brine solution sprayed on the roads before snowfalls to keep roads from icing and preventing snow and ice from bonding to the pavement, making it easier to remove.  A "bare pavement" policy to clear roads to a bare pavement condition as soon as reasonably possible following storm conditions.  Aroad weather information system (RWIS), consisting of six weather stations in key parts of the Region to update temperature, pavement condition, salt concentration and precipitation.  A global positioning system (GPS) to monitor road coverage by vehicles and track the application rate of both salt and sand.  Drive-through salt and sand storage sheds to reduce the amount of these materials exposed to the environment.  Computerized spreader controls on vehicles to more precisely spread both sand and salt.

The Region's Roads Transportation Branch encourages everyone to take extra care during winter driving conditions and to help road clearing efforts by slowing down and driving cautiously around winter maintenance vehicles.

Together with York Regional Police Services and York Region Health Services, the transportation branch plays an integral role in the Save-a-Life Program. Save-a-Life encourages safe driving habits through engineering safer roads, educating drivers about safe driving, and police enforcement. For more information, visit www.yorkregionsavealife.com