Each Spring brings our regular road maintenance procedures to help get our roads into shape after the winter. While frost is coming out of the ground, it is typical that roads are already wet and to top it off, with the extreme amounts of snow and rain we’ve received this year, many Municipal roads have deteriorated.
Our Public Works Department is aware of the conditions of our roads and the need to restore them as soon as possible. Our equipment and operators are out there where they can be, however the precipitation that we continue to receive on top of the already extreme conditions, is causing delays to our regular road maintenance.
These delays are proving to be out of our control and will also result in pushing back gravelling and dust control – as these are the next step once roads are prepper and shaped.
There are many factors that prevent roads from being graded:
• Frozen road surfaces and frost not out of the ground yet
• Too much moisture or saturated road surfaces
• The graders weight will leave large ruts on the roads if they are still soft as the frost comes out
• When a road is freshly graded, the surface is broken up and gravel is loose. This surface then acts like a sponge and absorbs any additional moisture turning the road surface into a ‘soupy’ mess. Sufficient time must be given for traffic to help compact and seal the road surface after grading the road to prevent this situation.
We ask that you be aware and drive to the current conditions and please be patient as it will take a substantial amount of time to restore all miles of gravel roads (over 560 miles of them) back to normal driving conditions. In some cases, we may do a temporary fix for the time being and then follow up to complete.
We will continue to keep you updated with timelines as they change.
Did you know? Provincial Roads and Provincial Highways are under the jurisdiction of Manitoba Highways? If you are having issues with any of the above, please contact Manitoba Highways directly at 204-346-6266 to advise them directly.