Snow Removal on County Roads

County of Wetaskiwin has 2,028 kilometers of roadways, 77 subdivisions, 8 Hamlets which are cleared with a combination of equipment from truck snowplows to graders.  

There are 12 grader beats in the County, with an average of 100 miles (160 km) per beat.

When a weather event occurs (snowfall, drifting), County equipment is dispatched to begin clearing the roads. Paved roads are cleared with snowplows and gravel roads are done with graders. 

During a weather event, Operators will be out when conditions are safe. When we experience a significant snowfall event, personnel & equipment are dispatched to various affected areas of the County. If the snowfall is extreme, County residents may observe motorgraders & snowplows making a single pass allowing operators to open as much road as possible in the shortest amount of time. Once the roads are open, they will start the clean up process, this includes full roadway clearing, shoulder delineation & windrow control. The County will have the roadways cleared in 3-4 days after typical snowfall events. We also require 2-3 days after clearing for the clean-up process. We thank you for your patience as Public Works crews work hard to ensure that roadways are opened as quickly as possible.

The County has tandem and smaller plow trucks. The larger tandem trucks typically plow the high-speed roads and the smaller trucks will commence clearing the subdivisions. Snow is cleared by front-mounted blades then an application of sand/salt mixture is spread on the asphalt. Once a brine solution has developed, the trucks return to clear the loosened material from the roadway. This process is repeated until a desirable result has been achieved.

Driveway entrances will not be cleaned out, but every effort will be made to keep entrances as clear of snow as possible. When the graders are clearing snow, they will gradually raise the snow wing to provide a feathered transition from roadway to driveway, the moldboard blade is not lifted or turned, so there may be some snow deposited at the driveway entrance.

Residents are encouraged to place their driveway snow on the “downstream” side of their approach for more efficient clearing of County roadways by motorgraders. Also, citizens are reminded to not plow or deposit their snow across the County roadway per Public Highway Development Act, Section 43(1). Plowing snow into the ditches or onto the side of the roads puts our employees and the safety of the traveling public at risk.

Provincial Numbered Highways are under the jurisdiction of the Province of Alberta (Alberta Transportation). Private contractors are hired by the province to operate and maintain all numbered primary and secondary highways. For road maintenance issues or concerns on ALL provincial numbered highways within the County of Wetaskiwin, please contact Mainroad Alberta Contracting at 1-877-875-3263 (24 hours a day/7 days a week).