Public Works and Environment Services are responsible for the maintenance of over 200 kilometers of roads. It is useless to say that snow removal operations represent a special challenge. However, the Municipality of Edmundston has established very precise guidelines concerning the procedure. Here are its major points.
CODE 1 (0 to 10 cm of snow): The service is provided by the team on duty during the precipitations.
CODE 2 (10 cm and more): The complete fleet goes out- 14 pieces of equipment necessary for a complete intervention.
CODE 3 (rain and ice storm): The intervention is made by the team on duty which has the responsibility to take out all adapted and necessary equipment for this type of intervention. We will then see five sand and salt spreading trucks, graders, and if necessary, backhoes to clear surface drains.
ICE CONTROL AND USE OF ICE MELTERS, AND ANTISKID MATERIALS
CODE 1: During a storm, all efforts are made to ensure safe traffic flow. In this sense, we concentrate our efforts on continuous scraping of main arteries and roads in residential areas.
To avoid wasting icemelters and antiskid material during storms, we limit their use to intersections, school zones, and slopes with a grade superior to 8 %.
CODE 2: As soon as the storm is over and during the last scraping, we proceed with a final more efficient sand and salt spreading operation.
SNOW CLEARING
CODE 1: Following important precipitations or during successive precipitations, the focus is on a fast snow clearing. The use of one front-end snow blower with a maximum number of trucks allows us to meet that objective.
CODE 2: Once the situation is under control, we use equipment such as a grader, a tracked vehicle and a tractor-loader to facilitate final cleaning, to remove the accumulated ice and to clear surface drains.
CODE 3: Intervention in residential areas: where it is possible, we delay snow removal by pushing the snow on the edge of properties with snow-blowers or graders, depending on the terrain’s configuration. This operation takes place simultaneously in several districts since it does not require transportation.
