Regular road grading occurs to provide a safe driving surface for the traveling public and to preserve the investment in the road infrastructure. Currently approximately 1450 km of County gravel surface is split into eight areas of grader responsibility, each operator maintains about 181 km of road. Roads are graded regularly based on a grading rotation of approximately 20 working days (once a month). Roads with higher use are graded more frequently and low use roads are graded less frequently. A rural road study was completed in 2012 to better help understand road use and traffic patterns, establishing Arterial (heavy use), Collector (moderate use) and local (low use) roads. Additionally traffic patterns change seasonally due to agriculture and industry activities that all determine grading frequency. Grading season typically occurs when temperatures are greater than freezing (ground must be thawed). This occurs generally in the months of May though to October.
Collector and Local gravel road surfaces are typically 8 meters (26 ¼ feet) wide and Arterial roads are typically 9 meters (29 ½ feet) wide. The crown on gravel roads is 4%, allowing for safe driving and promote effective drainage of water of the surface during rain events. Grader operators utilize a four pass grading technique to maintain desired width and crown.
Traffic on gravel roads can be easily determined by the number of wheel tracks on the surface. Arterial roads can have up to five identifiable wheel tracks (frequent two-way traffic), collectors roads typically have three wheel tracks (occasional two-way traffic) and local roads have two wheel tracks (primarily one-way traffic).
Read our Road Maintenance Policy.
Other summer operations include, but not limited to:
- Paved road sweeping of highways, hamlets, and subdivisions in the spring to cleanup sand/debris accumulated over the winter months
- Dirty road signs are also pressure washed annually to maintain visibility
- Delineators are inspected/repaired in the spring and fall
- All major bridge structures on County roads are cleaned and minor inspections are performed
- Paved roads are crack sealed and lines repainted by mid June
- Paved roads are inspected annually to identify minor defects such as potholes that will be repaired
- Catch basins for buried storm drains are inspected and cleaned annually
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