Clearwater County recognizes that roads are a primary function of the municipality and will develop and maintain a quality road network to serve and complement residential, farming, commercial, recreational and industrial activities and needs. Highly responsive maintenance services will be delivered by well organized, dedicated, and efficient employees and contractors.

Objectives General:

1. The County has a good network of municipal roadways, complemented by an equally good network of Provincial Highways. The objective therefore is not necessarily to develop or expand, but to preserve and improve the existing network with priority placed on those roads most used by County residents and taxpayers.

2. County roads shall be constructed and maintained to a standard that suites the traffic they are intended to serve. These standards will therefore vary depending on the local circumstances and as much as possible, future needs.

3. The County will aggressively pursue a program of surfacing as many roads as possible, beginning with high use roads, and those gravel roads with high maintenance requirements. Residents within subdivisions will be encouraged to participate in cost sharing financing plans to permit the County to surface internal roads.  The County will consider the long term implications of its surfacing program and its relationship to the maintenance and rehabilitation requirements of the municipality.

4. The County will take advantage of public and private partnerships in its maintenance and road development activities and where demands exist for services above those normally provided by the County.

5. The County will work with Provincial and urban authorities to ultimately achieve a Regional road system where maintenance, rehabilitation and construction activities are delivered in an effective, integrated and coordinated fashion.

Maintenance Objectives:

1. Priority is placed on the maintenance of municipal roads; and the standard, and type of maintenance will vary depending on the local conditions and use. The objective of road maintenance activities will be to provide a safe driving surface for the traveling public and to preserve the investment in the road infrastructure. Primary attention will be paid to roads with higher use.

2. A diligent system of placing road bans, administering vehicle weight enforcement regulations and issuing permits and truck haul route approvals will be developed and implemented to protect roadways from unusual damage and to reduce driving hazards and conflicts with adjacent residents. This system will be developed and administered acknowledging the importance to the County and to the Province in keeping commerce moving while balancing the needs and safety of other road users.

3. Particular attention will be paid to all maintenance activities to minimize the need for major repairs and to ensure that any repair, once completed, is effective.

4. Maintenance activities will be prioritized based on safety, traffic volumes and the severity of the problem. Council will consider allocating additional funds to major problem areas to ensure that repairs are effectual.

5. The County will maximize the use of contracted equipment in its maintenance activities. The length of each grader beat will be such that it provides for a viable contract and minimize the number of regular beat graders, while a reasonable and dependable level of service is provided. As a rule of thumb, beats should be maintained at about 105 miles in length and all roads should be cleared of snow or graded within 96 hours. Grader maintenance will only occur however, when conditions warrant (e.g. more than 4 inches of snow).

6. The use of graders for winter and summer maintenance will decrease as the mileage of surfaced roads increases. The County will regularly adjust the grader beats in light of changing circumstances.

7. Additional snow plow trucks will be contracted as required.

Road Surfacing Objectives:

1. The County will surface certain roads to complement the Provincial Highway system and improve the traveling surface and provide a dust free environment for as many residents/taxpayers as possible.

2. Priority will be placed on surfacing:

   • Roads which complete surfacing projects started;

   • Roads that meet the objective of ensuring that a surfaced road municipal road or a Provincial Highway is within 5 kilometers to most residents;

   • Network links to areas of the municipality, between Provincial Highways and to other municipalities/counties;

   • On other roads that provide the most benefit (dust control and improved maintenance standard) to the most people (as measured by traffic counts and the number of residents living along a road) while ensuring the distribution of surfaced roads throughout the municipality.

3. The standard of the surfaced road will vary depending on circumstances but will not normally be below a 9.0m initial driving surface on higher traffic routes.

Construction Objectives:

1. Construction standards will be considered and established by council for each project prior to the commencement of works. Roads will generally be reconstructed one year in advance of receiving a surface. Construction supervisors shall exercise adequate care and attention to ensure proper shape, width and compaction.

2. The County will maximize the use of the shoulder pulls, augmented with clay fill, to rehabilitate roads and to prepare them for surfacing.

3. Complete reconstruction, new construction, the purchase of additional right-of-ways, and other work outside the road right-of-way will only be undertaken when no other alternative is practical, as these elements add considerably to the cost of road development. Lesser standards may be considered to avoid such works and to reduce costs, thereby making more money available to surface and upgrade existing roads.

4. Gravel pits and clay pits will be located and developed in strategic locations throughout the county, for purposes of reducing haul costs for construction and maintenance projects.

Clearwater County Maintains and Consists of:

1750 Kilometers of gravel roads

92 kilometers of paved local roads

134 kilometers of chip sealed local roads

Five (5) Hamlets

• Nordegg

• Leslieville

• Condor

• Alhambra

• Withrow

Three (3) sewer systems located in:

• Nordegg

• Leslieville

• Condor

One (1) water treatment plant and distribution system located in:

• Nordegg

Three (3) Maintenance Yards located in:

• Rocky Mountain House

• Caroline

• Leslieville

Twelve (12) Grader Beats averaging 145 kilometers each.

Four (4) Snow Plowing and Sander Beats averaging 57 kilometers each.

Eighteen (18) Gravel Pits and Stockpile Sites.

Two Hundred (200) Bridges and Bridge Sized Culverts.

Public Works Yearly Programs:

Maintenance chip seals approximately 30 kilometers per year.

Shoulder pulls (reshaping) approximately 10 kilometers per year.

Asphalt overlay program of 8 kilometers of local road.

Reconstruction of 8 kilometers of local gravel road.

Winter gravel program with an application of approximately  75,000 tonnes of gravel on local roads.

Summer gravel program with an application of approximately 25,000 tonnes of gravel on various locations in need of gravel.

Alberta Transportation Department

Government of Alberta

Town of Rocky Mountain House