{"id":8789,"date":"2015-12-28T10:12:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T15:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=8789"},"modified":"2015-12-28T10:15:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T15:15:27","slug":"huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"What will Huntsville&#8217;s highways look like after tonight&#8217;s storm?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With a new winter comes new changes to the winter maintenance contract for Huntsville\u2019s two main highways. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has responded to the Auditor General&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.auditor.on.ca\/en\/reports_en\/winterhighway_en.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Special Report on Highway Winter Maintenance<\/a> with tougher rules for contractors, but what will that look like for local drivers? Here\u2019s a rundown on the changes that will potentially be put to the test tonight with up to 20 cm of snow in the forecast.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong> <broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>The MTO has offered highway contractors a winter readiness and performance incentive in an attempt to improve safety, requiring them to submit proof of mechanical inspections that show their equipment is ready along with a roster of drivers. The MTO has said they will assess the performance of each piece of equipment and its drivers throughout the winter. In a December 14 presentation to District Council, the MTO reported that Carillion, the contractor for the Huntsville area, is in the process of developing an equipment fleet maintenance program for improved equipment reliability in Huntsville.<\/p>\n<p>Contractors have also been offered an incentive for Direct Liquid Application (DLA) use, which Carillion has opted in to. DLA involves spraying an anti-icing liquid on roads before a storm to prevent ice from forming.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers won\u2019t be stuck behind tow plows this winter but only on Highway 11, which is classified as a Class 1 Freeway. Tow plows are still allowed on secondary highways including Highway 60, which is classified as Class 2.<\/p>\n<p>The MTO\u2019s target is to meet the bare pavement standard 90 per cent of the time. The standard for Class 1 highways is bare pavement within 8 hours; for Class 2 highways, contractors have 16 hours to return the road surface to bare pavement. Highway ramps in the area also fall under Class 2. Highways 35 and 141 are Class 3, which must be returned to bare pavement within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"modern-quote full\"><p>The MTO was invited to attend a recent (District) Council meeting to debrief on their action plans for this winter and going forward. It is apparent that the MTO have taken the Auditor General\u2019s report and public concerns seriously and time will tell how this translates into improved maintenance this winter.<cite>Fred Jahn, District of Muskoka Commissioner of Public Works<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The MTO installed cameras along Highway 11 last winter at South Mary Lake Road so that drivers can view road conditions via a map on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trackmyplow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">TrackMyPlow.com<\/a>. The website will also show the locations of area plows. Carillion\u2019s Huntsville contract area extends from Georgian Bay to the other side of Algonquin Park, and from Sundridge to south of Gravenhurst.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8793\" style=\"width: 1414px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8793\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8793\" src=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/TrackMyPlow-map.png\" alt=\"A view of Huntsville's highways on TrackMyPlow.com showing the location of plows and stationary cameras, and local weather conditions.\" width=\"1404\" height=\"672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/TrackMyPlow-map-300x144.png 300w, https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/TrackMyPlow-map-768x368.png 768w, https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/TrackMyPlow-map-1024x490.png 1024w, https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/TrackMyPlow-map.png 1404w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1404px) 100vw, 1404px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Huntsville&#8217;s highways on TrackMyPlow.com showing the location of plows and stationary cameras, and local weather conditions.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It will be up to the MTO to monitor whether the changes have the desired effect, but drivers, District staff and elected officials will be watching closely. \u201cThe District does not have any official involvement with the maintenance of Provincial Highways. However, our elected officials, in response to public concerns, facilitated discussions with MTO staff last winter through the Engineering and Public Works Committee,\u201d said Fred Jahn, Commissioner of Public Works. \u201cThe MTO was also invited to attend a recent (District) Council meeting to debrief on their action plans for this winter and going forward. It is apparent that the MTO have taken the Auditor General\u2019s report and public concerns seriously and time will tell how this translates into improved maintenance this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a new winter comes new changes to the winter maintenance contract for Huntsville\u2019s two main highways. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has responded to the Auditor General&#8217;s Special Report [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":8791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-8789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What will Huntsville&#039;s highways look like after tonight&#039;s storm? - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What will Huntsville&#039;s highways look like after tonight&#039;s storm? - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a new winter comes new changes to the winter maintenance contract for Huntsville\u2019s two main highways. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has responded to the Auditor General&#8217;s Special Report [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-28T15:12:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-28T15:15:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/Plow-header-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dawn Huddlestone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dawn Huddlestone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dawn Huddlestone\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/d5d919046b2224f1b6b8bc9c585ff4a3\"},\"headline\":\"What will Huntsville&#8217;s highways look like after tonight&#8217;s storm?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-28T15:12:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-28T15:15:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/\"},\"wordCount\":588,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2015\/12\/Plow-header-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"breaking\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-winter-highway-maintenance\/\",\"name\":\"What will Huntsville's highways look like after tonight's storm? 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