Aaron Deon sent us the photo of the Canaan Road in Yarmouth County.
It’s one of hundreds of unpaved roads in the Tri-Counties that are under weight restrictions.
No one is complaining about the recent mild, spring-like weather…unless you live on a gravel road.
This early thaw has prompted the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal to place weight restrictions on all provincial gravel roads.
Don Houston, with the department’s depot in Yarmouth, says it’s a matter of safety.
Early thaw prompts weight restrictions (15,000 kg max) on all prov. gravel rds starting noon tomorrow (Friday) until further notice.
— NS_TIR (@NS_TIR) February 23, 2017
“Typically it’s the higher volume roads, especially the truck traffic. It beats the frost into the ground and when it comes out, with all the moisture, those are the roads that don’t perform as well as others.”
Houston says there is not much crews can do right now.
“With a 35-tonne grader, if we try to get those onto a road, we’re just going to make more of a mess than anything. We’re trying to be diligent with these weight restrictions. Hopefully we’re able to keep the truck traffic, the logging trucks and such, off of these gravel roads. Once the moisture is out of the ground and it starts to dry, we’ll be able to get the graders on it.”
Gravel roads are posted to a maximum of 15,000 kilograms until further notice.