Road Maintenance

Our roads crew make sure the City's roads have routine maintenance to catch minor defects and major repairs, including:

• asphalt patching
• bridge washing
• culvert repairs
• ditch brushing
• grading
• paving
• pothole repair
• road signs
• sanding and salting
• sidewalk restoration
• snow plowing and removal
• sweeping

We have carefully developed a winter road service level plan to combat the diverse weather conditions we see every winter. This system assigns priority to all major roads with the highest traffic in the city. To ensure the safety of drivers and pedestrians, these major routes are serviced as soon as possible. Secondary routes (all residential streets in the city) are attended to regularly, but less often than priority routes.

Our responsibilities are quite extensive with limited resources. Roads crews work hard daily to meet the demands of the weather challenges and fluctuations.

The public's cooperation with the crew's efforts and understanding of the challenges will help us work together through this demanding winter.

For street light issues, please contact us at 807-467-2291 with details about what is wrong with the street light and the exact location, preferably an address or landmark.

On November 2, 2015, all of the City's 1,970 streetlights were replaced with new LED lights. The new lighting system helps to reduce annual electricity consumption by 73% as well as maintenance costs by 80%. LEDs last four times longer than the other streetlights. The project was initiated and designed by Ontario's Local Authority Services (LAS) and RealTerm Energy using new LED streetlights from CREE Canada, one of the world's leading LED manufacturers.

In addition to being energy-efficient, LEDs provide a white, clean directional light that shines light downward onto the road where it is needed, reducing light pollution and increasing visibility and safety. Upgrading to LEDs is also an environmentally conscious choice, for it will allow Kenora to reduce its emission of greenhouse gases by 144 metric tonnes per year: the equivalent of the carbon removed by nearly 3,700 tree seedlings grown for ten years.

To date, over 130 Ontario municipalities have chosen to upgrade to LED street lighting with LAS and RealTerm Energy including Sioux Lookout, Emo and Barrie.

In spring when the snow has melted and the night time temperature is above zero degrees Celcius (0℃), the Roads Division can begin a plan for street sweeping. As with snow removal, the downtown and highways and bridges are priority areas.

Downtown is swept during the early morning shift, while all others are done during the day shift. When the priority areas are completed, the sweepers start in the nine designated residential areas:

• Brick Yard
• Central
• JM Subdivision
• Keewatin
• Lakeside
• Minto
• Norman
• North End
• Rideout

We work to achieve a balanced road maintenance strategy. Street sweeping is done in conjunction with other routine and periodic maintenance work which puts to work some of the same work crew and equipment. This challenge and other limitations or situations may override or delay the street sweeping plan.

Limitations

• Emergency repair works such as water line repairs, sewer line repairs, and emergency road repairs may override street sweeping. Street sweeping is not an emergency service.
• Rainy weather can delay the plan until the sand dries out and rain stops. Picking up wet sand causes trouble for the sweeper drum.
• The plan may change if equipment breaks down or repairs are needed. Anywhere from four to six pieces of equipment is required to do the sweeping job.
• Line painting is a priority in the spring. During line painting period, the plan may change to clear the areas where the line painting contractor needs to work.
• The plan depends on the availability of trained employees to operate the equipment in the street sweeper squad.

Street sweeper squad

Downtown

• 2 sweepers
• 1 sidewalk sweeper
• 1 water truck
• 2 tandem trucks

Highways and bridges

• 1 sweeper
• 1 sidewalk sweeper
• 1 water truck
• 1 tandem truck

Residential areas

• 3 sweepers
• 1 water truck
• 3 tandem truck