Winter ready: Barrie saves $438K through recycled street sand program
Council also reviews a report on windrow clearing in city, but does not take action

Simcoe.com
Nov. 21, 2017
Chris Simon

Barrie is saving money and the environment by keeping road sand out of landfills.

During a meeting Nov. 20, staff revealed the municipality saved $438,000 through a recycled street sweepings pilot program in 2017.

“There’s been a bit of an industry myth that winter sand applied to roads cannot be reused as it ‘loses edges’ and would be unsafe for traction,” senior operations technologist Jacob Reid said. “This is not true. The combination of different sand sizes … provides the required traction for safe travel of vehicles on our roads.”

Barrie applied 7,400 tons of sand to streets in the municipality last winter season. It collected 4,137 tons in the spring and summer and diverted 87 per cent of that from landfills.

“We’re definitely saving some landfill space,” Reid said.

In a related matter, council received a report on the cost of implementing a windrow clearing program within the municipality. A windrow is the snow pile left at the end of a driveway after a plow passes.

Council asked for a staff report on the matter in February. The city does not provide this service to residents and there are about 50,000 driveways in Barrie.

Staff looked at practices in other municipalities, including Mississauga, Burlington, Oakville. Oshawa, Brantford, Toronto and Vaughan. While the jurisdictions provide varying levels of clearing, there is one major distinction — none are located within the snowbelt.

“Barrie receives an average annual snowfall of 238 (centimetres),” roads, parks and fleet director Dave Friary said. “This is more than twice the average annual snowfall of the comparators.”

Earlier this year, Innisfil nixed a proposal for a user-pay windrow service.

Implementing full windrow clearing would cost Barrie $4.4 million each year. Two backhoes or loaders would be required for the city’s 25 plow routes in order to clear all windrows within 12 to 16 hours.

Staff also noted the city could implement a program to clear windrows for seniors and people living with disabilities. There are about 10,000 driveways in the city that would fall under this program. It would cost about $1.1 million annually.

Council did not take action on the windrow program.