Planning for Severe Winter Weather

Planning for Severe Winter Weather

With severe winter weather forecast for the next few days, municipal staff are preparing to respond accordingly to maintain services including safe travel conditions on our roadways.

However, severe weather brings the risk of service outages, and we would like to remind households and businesses in our community to be prepared for the unexpected. Have a 72-hour emergency kit on hand with all necessary items to sustain yourself in case of a prolonged period of road closures, hydro outages, etc.

“It is my sincere hope that everyone has an enjoyable holiday and that plans aren’t negatively impacted by bad weather,” said Mayor George Finch. “But hope is not a strategy, so we all have a responsibility to be prepared in case of an emergency.”

For up-to-date information on the status of roadways, consult Ontario 511 online at 511on.ca or dial 5-1-1 on your phone. The status of municipal services will be published to our website www.SouthHuron.ca as well as our accounts on Facebook and Twitter (@southhuron), and shared with local news media.

Background Information: Road and sidewalk clearing in South Huron

South Huron’s winter operators aim to provide safe roads and sidewalks to residents in a timely manner. The Municipality has a 24/7 response team that maintains all South Huron’s roads and sidewalks using various equipment such as graders, plow trucks and sidewalk plows.

After a snow or ice event ends, our winter operators prioritize what roads they clear first according to the Minimum Maintenance Standards for Municipal Highways, O. Reg. 239/02. A larger snow or ice event may extend the time it takes for operators to clear local streets and residential areas. Please be patient, roads will be cleared by the winter operators as soon as possible. 

Roads

Roads are plowed and sanded/salted as soon as possible following a winter event, however we do have priorities as to the order and frequency that they are serviced:

1. Primary Routes focus on Primary Roads which carry large volumes of traffic including school areas, emergency, fire, and critical areas on hills, curves and bridges.  These roads are our first priority.
2. Secondary Routes include all low volume local and residential streets.  Please note that these streets are NOT maintained to a bare pavement condition but are plowed and sanded/salted as necessary to provide safe vehicular travel.  They are only serviced after the main routes have been cleared to an acceptable level.

Sidewalks

Sidewalks are cleared after snow accumulation reaches 8 cm. Sidewalk clearing is generally completed within 24 hours after the end of the storm; however, when we have a heavy snowfall, or successive winter events back to back, it will take longer to clear all sidewalks.

You can help with our snow removal by clearing snow and ice from your sidewalks as soon as possible after a snowfall to ensure that they are safe for all residents. By keeping the sidewalks clear, it helps to ensure that all pedestrians, especially those using walkers, scooters and strollers, will be safe.