Weekly newsletter: December 5, 2023

I swear November just started last week…

Woodroffe Avenue traffic impacts

Motorists, take note of travel impacts in up to two areas of Woodroffe Avenue over the next two weeks.

Starting today until Friday December 8, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, the left lanes of Woodroffe are closing in both directions between Slack and two hundred metres south of Slack.

The closure allows for preparatory works for a watermain repair in that area scheduled for mid-January 2024.

Crews will remove a portion of the centre median in the area to facilitate a shift in the traffic lanes to accommodate the repairs in January. Lanes will not shift until the repairs begin in January and will revert to their normal state, with the median rebuilt, following the watermain works.

Further south, Woodroffe Avenue is closing to through traffic next week from Monday December 11 to Friday December 15 between Stoneleigh and Whitewater to allow for a new water/sewer connection at 3440 Woodroffe.

Residents at 3405 to 3436 Woodroffe will retain local access to the road plus their driveways, although three homes will lose all access to their driveways for the duration of the work due to a roadcut. Affected residents will receive a notice and a temporary on-street parking permit.

The preferred detour for through traffic coming from Hearts Desire and the community around Chestermere and Willow Creek is Whitewater-Grovemont-Cresthaven northbound, and Cresthaven-Grovemont-Whitewater southbound.

Winter maintenance

We made it through the first major snowfall of the season!

Last week, I mentioned the streets in the ward with new winter one-side street parking restrictions and the process behind deciding where those go. This week, I’d like to touch on winter maintenance—writing about it also helps me remember it better.

Did you know public works clears city roads and sidewalks on a priority system based on the roadway classification? Each classification has a timeline and snow accumulation amount for service after the snow stops falling, although that does not mean there will be no plows during the snowfall.

Highway 174, the Transitway, and major roads like Woodroffe and Prince of Wales receive their first passes as soon as snow accumulates, with a timeline of two to four hours after the snowfall ends for a final snowplow pass.

Secondary roads and minor collectors like Beatrice, Cresthaven, Foxfield, Mountshannon, and Paul Métivier receive snowplow passes up to six hours after the end of the snowfall if there are more than five centimetres of accumulation.

Residential streets like Ashland, Calaveras, Daventry, Locheland, Knollsbrook, Markland, and Versilia receive snowplow passes up to 16 hours after the end of the snowfall with more than seven centimetres of accumulation.

(Fun, but useless fact: no streets in Barrhaven East start with X or Z. The last street alphabetically is Yorkwood Place.)

The timeline for clearing suburban residential sidewalks is 16 hours, while at five centimetres of accumulation, the clearing time for all bus stops is within 24 hours of the end of a snowfall.

Note that city crews maintain bus stops with no shelters while OC Transpo crews maintain those with shelters.

However, when there’s a declaration of a significant weather event, staff can ignore the timelines. Significant weather events are weather hazards with potential to pose a major danger to road users in a municipality.

When the city declares a significant weather event, residents may wait longer than prescribed for snow clearing, though standard timelines reinstate automatically once the event is over.

For context, that declaration happened only twice last winter—at the end of December 2022, and for the ice storm in April (how long ago does that feel?).

Better Call Salt

Lastly, residents reached out Friday and Saturday wondering why crews were out salting sidewalks in advance of Sunday’s freezing rain and snowfall.

Road salt works by lowering the freezing point of water, allowing ice to continue melting below water’s normal freezing point of 0C. The salt dissolves into separate sodium and chloride ions disrupting the bond between water molecules.

Typically, road salt is effective down to-10C.

As the function of road salt is to lower the freezing point of water rather than physically melt ice, there must be precipitation on the ground for it to work effectively, which is why it’s important to lay it down beforehand.

Road salt prevents freezing rather than addressing it. Applying road salt after ice has accumulated increases the amount of salt required.

With concerns about the effects of road salt on the environment and on dog paws, plus material cost, any effort to reduce the amount applied is good.

Apologies to fans of Better Call Saul.

OC Transpo/Loblaw food drive

This Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, OC Transpo will be holding its 39th annual food drive at the Loblaws and at McDonough’s Independent at Strandherd/Greenbank!

Though the event supports the Ottawa Food Bank, local food and cash donations in Barrhaven will go directly to the Barrhaven Food Cupboard.

Both grocery store locations will feature a bus stationed near the front door to accept food donations, while volunteers will accept cash donations at grocery store entrances/exits. In previous years, both stores also sold pre-assembled bags for 10$ to make it even easier!

The Barrhaven Food Cupboard continues to struggle to meet the increased demand for food help since the height of the pandemic. Residents who wish to donate directly to them may do so at their website.

Thank you for your support.

Have a great rest of your week,

-Wilson