Barrie drivers could notice a little more salt and a little less sand on residential city streets this winter.
“There will be a bit more salt used this season, but we will still be using sand when required,” said city operations director Dave Friary. “When the temperatures drop below minus-10/15 (Celsius), the salt does not effectively melt snow, so sand is generally used for traction purposes.”
Barrie’s residential routes for winter maintenance are maintained to a snow-packed condition by plowing and by using sand for traction.
But the city’s sand dome, located at the operations centre on Ferndale Drive North, failed a structural inspection this past fall.
“We had a third-party consultant do a structural inspection and it has deteriorated to the point where it should not be used and should be torn down,” Friary explained. “It is 40 to 50 years old and is undersized for the current needs of the city.”
He said there’s a small amount of room in the city’s salt storage facility that can be used to store sand, on a temporary basis, until the new sand storage facility can be constructed.
But without a building to exclusively store winter sand this season, salt will be used instead of winter sand during the more moderate temperatures at the beginning and end of the winter season to maintain roads to the approved level of service. Salt will be used only when it is required, and at a very low application rate, to continue to minimize impact to the environment.
As the winter progresses and more severe weather persists, salt stores will become depleted and that will create room for sand storage in the salt building. This can allow for sand to be used in residential areas during the colder months when salt becomes less effective, as per the city’s usual practice.
The limited availability of covered storage, however, means it won’t be feasible to continue the recycling of street sweepings for reclaimed winter sand, which was a primary program for avoiding significant annual costs related to street sweeping disposal.
“The recycled sand program has been paused as we have nowhere to store that much sand,” Friary said. “The sand needs to be kept dry, otherwise it clogs and clumps in the machinery and does not spread evenly on the roadway.
“The cost avoidance when using the recycled sand is approximately $200,000. There also may be some savings with the reduction in sand that needs to be collected in the spring," he added.
Despite less storage for sand and a little more use of salt, Friary says residents won’t have to change their driving habits.
“Residents will likely not even notice any difference,” he said. “We will still be out on the roads whenever we have winter weather.”
The city's winter maintenance responsibilities include 1,575 kilometres of roads, 619 kilometres of sidewalks, 25 parking lots, 72 crosswalks, 113 bus shelters, 708 bus stops, and downtown sidewalk intersections.
The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority has indicated to the city that regardless of whether the predominant winter control material applied is sand or salt, a management approach is required to ensure the protection of public safety on the city’s roads while minimizing environmental impact.
