Road Construction & Maintenance

The Municipal District of Fairview No. 136's Public Works Department maintains approximately 885 kilometers of developed gravel roads, which are divided into four beats for the purpose of maintenance. Each beat is assigned a grader and skilled operator, responsible for maintaining roads within their designated beat to the minimum standard established by the Municipality.  

The Municipality endeavors to maintain gravel roads to a reasonably smooth, safe standard within the limitations imposed by factors including, but not limited to: the natural environment; weather conditions; availability of equipment and manpower; availability and quality of material; and, financial resources.

Roads are graded in accordance with the general priority established in Policy TRN27 – Road Classification, with higher priority roads receiving more maintenance than lower priority roads. The Municipality will make every reasonable effort to meet the following standard in terms of maintenance frequency:

Maintenance standards are detailed in Policy TRN 28 - Road Maintenance.

The Municipal District of Fairview No. 136 road bridge inventory includes 57 structures:

• 1 major bridge;
• 15 standard girder bridges; and, 
• 41 bridge sized culverts. 

The Municipality is responsible for the construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of bridge structures on local roads.

To report damage or identify a safety issue relating to a bridge structure, please contact the Department of Public Works by telephone at 780-835-4903 or by email.

On average, the Municipal District of Fairview No. 136's gravelling program applies approximately 100,000 tonnes of gravel every two years to the municipal gravel road network. Gravel is sourced from a combination of product crushed from two municipally owned and operated gravel pits and product purchased from private gravel suppliers. 

The Municipality endeavors to apply gravel to its road network on a rotating 5-year program, as established and administered by the Department of Public Works. Roads are graveled in accordance with the general priority established in Policy TRN27 - Road Classification, as follows: 

The Department of Public Works determines a gravelling plan on an annual basis, in accordance with Policy TRN29 - Gravelling Program and within the limits of allocated budget funding. 

During the winter season, the Municipality is committed to maintaining roads to a safe and passable condition, and in accordance with Policy TRN21 - Winter Road Maintenance. Municipal winter road maintenance is not intended to eliminate all hazardous conditions at all times, but is intended to mitigate such hazardous conditions. Motorists are expected to properly equip vehicles for winter driving and to operate such vehicles in a manner consistent with good winter driving practices.

Winter road maintenance is guided by the general priority established in Policy TRN 27 – Road Classification, with higher priority roads receiving more maintenance than lower priority roads. Further, winter road maintenance is performed in accordance with the following specified priority:
• School Bus Routes, Collector Roads, roads with particularly hazardous physical features,
• Airport, and
• Residential Roads.

Snow removal will be commenced when accumulations reach ten (10) to fifteen (15) centimeters. The Municipality will make reasonable efforts to ensure the highest priority of roads are open (one-pass) within twenty four (24) to forty eight (48) hours following a snowfall event. Further, that the driving surface of all classes of roads (which receive winter road maintenance) are cleared of snow within four (4) days following a snowfall event.

Multiple snowfall events may alter the snow clearing cycle and require extended hours or days to complete. Ice accumulation, extreme cold and/or other extreme, adverse weather conditions will delay operations and extend the amount of time it takes to clear Municipal roads.

All primary and secondary highways are the responsibility of, and maintained by, Alberta Transportation. If you have questions or concerns about maintenance of these roads, please contact Alberta Transportation at 780-624-6280. For updated highway conditions and reports, please call 5-1-1 or visit 511 Alberta.

Policy TRN04 - Approaches established a systematic process for the provision of access to a parcel of land from a developed municipal road within the Municipal District of Fairview No. 136. 

The Municipality will approve and install one (1) approach from a developed municipal road per parcel or part thereof, if the parcel is severed by a topographical feature, or by a developed municipal road. Requests for additional approaches may be approved by the Department of Public Works, but landowners are responsible for the construction of such approaches in accordance with Policy TRN04 - Approaches. 

All approaches constructed after the effective date of Policy TRN04 - Approaches must conform to the standards established therein, in addition to any other specifications deemed necessary by the Department of Public Works. For existing approaches not conforming to Municipal standards, the landowner may submit a written request to the Municipality to upgrade the approach (requests to widen existing approaches will not be accepted). If a request to upgrade an approach is approved by the Department of Public Works, upgrading of approaches by the Municipality will be completed in accordance to assigned priority and will be subject to the operational and budgetary constraints of the Municipality. A landowner may choose to undertake the upgrading of an approach, but shall do so in compliance with Policy TRN04 - Approaches.