Road conditions across the Rural Municipality of Hanover have taken a hit this spring.
According to Wes Fehr, the Manager of Public Works, this past winter had minimal snow cover, and there were known issues with frost heaving throughout the winter and into the spring.
“So, that being noted, we kind of expected that we would be seeing some frost boil issues this spring, but right now, things are looking like they're quite significant as far as the frost boils that we're experiencing.”
Fehr notes that the number of frost boils this year is higher than usual.
“Probably not the worst that we've seen but definitely is one of the worst years that we've had in years past.”
The most affected roads are located south of Mitchell, extending toward Kleefeld and Grunthal.
“In that generalized area there in the rural areas and that is typically because that's generally where we have the most groundwater issues that are beneath the subsoil that just caused all those frost boils,” Fehr explains.
While residents are travelling on these roads, Fehr says they may notice barricades, which are being used as warning devices.
“Barricades are just there to alert travellers that there are issues with the road. Just to make them aware that they should be slowing down. Frost boils make the road quite rough, but they can also make the road impassable in certain areas as well, if not navigated properly.”
With warmer weather on the way, Fehr is hopeful that the frost boils will begin to subside.
“Honestly, I'm thinking that we probably will still see frost boils going until the end of May, possibly even into June for some areas.”
In the meantime, municipal crews are doing what they can to maintain the roads.
“We do have equipment that's going around, the graders are doing what they can with a lot of these areas. Typically frost boils are too soft for a motor grader to do any kind of amount of aggressive work with that. So, we do have a tractor and a box plate that goes around just to try and level them out and smooth them over and just work them to help dry them out faster. So we're doing what we can, but unfortunately travelling on the roads with gravel and heavy trucks just would make things worse right now, so we're just in a bit of a waiting period.”
Fehr urges motorists to proceed with extra caution while travelling these roads.
“I realize it's frustrating to deal with frost boils. Unfortunately, there's no real quick fix for these types of things. The proper fix for these is very costly and the municipality has been doing reconstruction of many roads in an effort to actually stay on top of some of these things. But unfortunately, we do have years like this where it is a significant issue, and we just ask motorists and residents to be cautious as they're travelling on the roads.”