Public Works Department
The public works manager is responsible for the following services: roads, water and waste management. For this web page and ease of information sharing the water and waste services have been separated into their own departments. The public works departments' main responsibility is the municipal road system and its supporting infrastruture such as bridges , ditches, culverts, lighting, entrances, signs etc.
Our goal is to provide a safe and convient roadway net work that facilitates the orderly movement of traffic all year round. Roads management encompasses the following general maintenance services, grading, shoulder repair, repair of pot holes (patching resurfacing), proper signs, tree triming and drainage which includes new ditching and ditch maintenance , placement , maintenance of culverts . In addition to the above there are seasonal services such as snow plowing , sanding, maintenance of municipal parking lots at beaches and some road ends that provide water access to various lakes or rivers.
The roads management plan is based on a roads assessment study which was done 10 years ago. This study provided a long term benchmark describing all of our roads, their length (total of 123 km ), the road surface type, (ie.gravel, hard surface etc.), road width, if it has a bus route, a condition rating at the time of the study, the last year it was improved, an estimate of the cost to reconstruct and when it needs to be done again. We have also prepared an estimate of when all of our bridges need to be replaced and their associated cost. All bridges are inspected every two years by a qualified engineer. In theory the plan will have an indefiinite life because we update it for road work done each year.In addition to our long term planning tools all of our roads are patrolled by our public works employees & public works manager. Should a road condition develop that requires a significant repair it will be moved forwad in our budget process . At the start of our budget process Council does an annual road tour to see first hand what types of capital projects are planned for all departments. At this time any feedback from the public to Council is also considered and the public can attend any of our meetings or write us a letter expressing their concern about any road.
Another significant tool that is used to ensure the roads are safe and well maintained are the policy directives from Council. Some of the most significant policies are as follows:
1) All 123km of road are classified based on traffic count and other unique features of the road or values that are in the road service area. For example the location of a firehall on a road would be considered a high value item and push the road classification up. Road classifications are from M1 to M5, the lower the number means that it has lower traffic counts and no unusual features or values and as a result has a lower service level. A M1 usually is a seasonal road with less than 50 vehicle trips per day.
This clasification system is used to establish service policy. For example the snow plowing policy works as follows:
Category 1 Roads are those roads with a classification of M4 or M5 and have annual average daily traffic volume in excess of 400 vehicles per day. The objective of snow plowing will be to complete plowing in both directions within an average of four hours from start to finish. When storms occur during the night the objective will be to open these roads by 8 a.m. the next morning.
CLICK here for the full Road Classification System and the Roadway Service Standard Policy.
2) Road Surface Standards for sub-division development
3) Use of undeveloped municipal road allowances
4) On call winter weekend supervision and road patrol