With winter officially behind us, Lakes District Maintenance Inc. (LDM) has almost wrapped up their winter activities.
“For all intensive purposes we are done with winter operations and have moved on to the spring time clean-up projects, however we still have equipment available to respond to any springs storms we may still receive,” said Mike Philip, the general manager at LDM.
The post-winter activities for the crew include clearing the roads from leftover winter salt and sand debris by wetting the road with a water truck, to keep the debris from creating too much dust for drivers.
LDM, is the highway road and bridge maintenance company that covers the Lakes, Robson and Stikine areas of Northern B.C. This was also the third winter season of the contract for LDM in Service Area 24 i.e. the Lakes area, which covers the communities of Burns Lake, Houston, Granisle, Grassy Plains, Decker Lake and Topley.
According to Philip, the Lakes District area had an average winter as far as snow levels and slightly above average freezing rain events.
“As with any winter there were challenges but this winter went relatively smooth throughout the area,” he said.
COVID-restrictions had minimal disruptions for the company’s winter activities as well.
“Due to the nature of the work, each employee is working in their own Plow truck or Grader so physical distancing is easy. We did need to adjust how we operated within our shops and made sure to follow WorkSafe guidelines to minimize the number of employees in common areas as well as adjust how we completed shift changes. Cleaning of common areas and equipment was also done between shifts and/or use by individuals,” said Philip.
However, what should’ve been a slower traffic year due to the pandemic-related travel restrictions, saw a lot more vehicles on the road.
“To be honest we are seeing more traffic than past years with a particular increase in large loads and industrial traffic in the area. The increase in industrial traffic does seem to be expediting wear on some roads in the area,” he said.
With the wear in the road and the spring melt starting in the area, the road maintenance company is urging people to report if anyone sees water that is impacting the roadways. To report such issues, community members can call 1-888-255-8055, which is a 24-hour. People can call and report the location and potential issue.
“This helps our crews address issues as soon as they pop up,” said Philip.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
Like us on Facebook and follows us on Twitter.
