Snow Clearing
Operational Services is responsible for all winter maintenance activities carried out on city streets. Operational Services presently has a compliment of fifty-four (52) employees. Forty-Six (46) employees are actively engaged in winter operations and are on evening, night and weekend shifts while eight (8) employees work days and are involved in sewer maintenance activities and other winter works.
Shifts at Operational Services consist of an evening shift from 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight, and a night shift from 12:00 midnight to 8:00 a.m. Each shift consists of a crew of eight. In addition, the weekend crew, which works Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., consists of nine (9) employees. There are also 2 split shifts of nine (9) men, who work when the 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight crew and the 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. shift are on their weekends off.
During non-winter operations, the crews work at various maintenance operations including patching, sewer flushing, sweeping, cleaning catchbasins, etc.
Brantford has over 1100 lane-kms of road, classified into 3 areas as either a red, blue or green priority much the same as the three categories of road, Arterials (major roads), Collectors (feeder roads) and Residential (residential streets). For example, it would be the priority of the City to have the higher traffic streets such as King George Road or Wayne Gretzky Parkway, cleared first before salting/plowing residential areas that do not experience the same amount of traffic. The Province has established winter standards for these classifications of roads.
Salting and plowing operations are launched from Operational Services, located at 10 Earl Avenue. Salt trucks are equipped with computerized controls and global positioning systems, which provide capabilities to monitor activities such as salt usage and route status.
Operational Services will be utilizing an Anti-Icing Program; which consists of the spraying of a liquid mixture (salt and water) called “BRINE”, on heavily traveled roads up to 12 hours in advance of a storm.
Once snow accumulation has reached 5cm, plowing operations begin. which conforms to the Provincial Minimum Maintence Standards. Once plowing and salting operations are complete, the snow removal process begins. Streets with outside walks and heavy pedestrian usages (mainly bridges, overpasses and the downtown core) are cleared first. The winter maintenance program begins October 30th, ending mid April all of which depends on weather.
Bus Stops
Bus routes are classed as Priority II (Blue Routes unless such bus routes fall on a Priority I route (Red Routes). There are approximately 479 bus stops located throughout the City of Brantford.
The Engineering Department will make every effort to ensure that initially, bus shelters are cleared and that the area between the shelter and the curb is clear for people to enter the bus. Secondly, bus stops, based on usage, will be cleared when manpower permits.
Mail Boxes
The Post Office carries out snow clearing at mailboxes to keep them accessible to the public.
Pedestrian Access Signals
At present, there are approximately 133 signalized intersections in the City. Ninety (90) percent have pedestrian access buttons on all four corners, totaling approximately 410 buttons. The Public Works Department or agents will undertake to clean areas adjacent to pedestrian access buttons within 24 hours following the completion of the plowing of City streets.