WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?: Crews sanding roads in Muskoka Lakes for winter | The Star

With all road and infrastructure projects complete this year in the Muskoka Lakes Township, the public works team is focused on making its communities safe for all to navigate during the winter. Crews are out on heavy snow days maintaining roads to snowpack condition with plowing and applying winter sand and salt.

JUST THE FACTS

• The township is responsible for maintaining all roads in Muskoka Lakes except for Highways 118 West and 169, which the District of Muskoka oversees.

• The only road in Muskoka Lakes where crews spread salt is Peninsula Road (District Road 7).

• Winter sanding is the alternative to salting on rural and residential roads, or used alongside salting. Sand provides traction control.

• The township’s public works technician, Tim Sopkowe, says salt is used when the temperature is above -10 C. Below this, they switch to sand because salt is ineffective.

• “We have only been out a few times so far this year, but everything has gone well,” Sopkowe wrote in an email. “We are fully mobilized and ready for winter.”

Zahraa Hmood is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering the municipalities of Muskoka Lakes, Lake of Bays and Georgian Bay. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.