Ice and snow, Georgina is ready to go!

What you need to know about snowplowing, salting and Georgina’s $1.36M winter operation

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 27, 2021

We're stuck in the middle of winter.

A major part of winter operations is playing the numbers and betting on the odds of snow, with localized weather reports coming three times daily between November and April.

Winter maintenance is more than just deploying a snowplow --there’s road patrols, route designations, optimizing operations shifts to ensure 24-hour road coverage and a calculated formula for how much salt to use and when to use it.

And Georgina’s roads are monitored and patrolled 24 hours a day to ensure roads are safe and residents are getting the best traction for their bucks -- all $1.36 million of it.

It all comes down to a science, and Georgina has it down pat.

Whose road is it anyway?

On any given snow day, three different levels of government are working to get the roads cleared in Georgina. But each level of government has its own snowplow schedule and maintenance threshold.

The provincial Ministry of Transportation is responsible for plowing highways 404 and 48 with the goal of clearing the road to bare pavement within eight to 24 hours respectively after a snowstorm.

York Region is responsible for plowing Ravenshoe, Old Homestead, Baseline, Metro, Park, Kennedy, Black River, Dalton, Pefferlaw and Victoria roads, as well as Weirs Sideroad, Woodbine and Warden avenues, The Queensway and portions of Morton and Glenwoods Avenue.

The town is responsible for all other roads and sidewalks.

Georgina Snow Maintenance

Georgina director of operations and infrastructure, Rob Flindall, and manager of parks development and operations, Ken McAlpine, stand in the town's Belhaven operations yard. | Susie Kockerscheidt/ Metroland
What’s plowed first:

The town plows its roads based on priority, with high-traffic areas at the top of the plow priority list, along with routes identified by emergency services, roads with steep hills, curves and school routes. These are followed by secondary and residential roads.

The town is responsible for clearing more than 330 kilometres of two-lane road, 140 kilometres of sidewalks and 25 municipally owned parking lots.

The majority of roads in town are semi-urban and rural roads.

When it snows, it snowstorms:
From start to finish, the town aims to clear each of the 12 designated snowplow routes within six hours of a significant snowfall.

The town is also piloting a Track MY Plow service with a colour-coded map showcasing which routes have been plowed, with the goal of offering the service to residents next winter.

Road Salt

Pass the salt:
The town uses treated salt --Thawrox --instead of regular road salt and it is applied in a mixture that has a ratio of seven parts sand to three parts treated salt. This mixture is even effective in colder temperatures as low as -15 C.

The town is also using salt that is 100 per cent treated on some urban roadways as a trial run to find more winter-ready efficiencies and to reduce sand sediment that flows off the road and into the Lake Simcoe watershed.

Move, get out the way:
Winter parking restrictions are in effect Nov. 15 to April 15 each year, prohibiting parking on town streets between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.

If there is a significant winter storm, the town may declare a winter maintenance event where all parked vehicles are to be removed from roads immediately and kept off the road for the duration of the winter event.

For more information, visit georgina.ca/snow.