Mainroad Contracting crews are carrying out de-icing operations on regional highways. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

winter driving

De-icing highways tops list of regional highway maintenance crews

Nov 10, 2020 | 5:25 AM

NANAIMO — While the mid island region braces for the first potential snowfall of the season, highway maintenance crews are taking a proactive approach.

Daniel Hutchins, regional general manager of Mainroad Contracting, said their crews shifted recently to 24-hour-a-day coverage on highways in the Nanaimo-Parksville area.

He said a liquid salt brine solution is being applied to regional highways to fight frost and black ice.

“We pre-wet the main highways around the area to make sure that if that black ice might have occurred that little bit extra sodium chloride will prevent it from being slippery,” Hutchins told NanaimoNewsNOW.

He said while snow is a top winter driving threat in most parts of the province, ice is the biggest obstacle on the mid island.

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“If you’re into areas that windy, if there’s a lot of tall trees causing shade you can expect to see black ice far more commonly than you will on the well-lit freeway corridor.”

Hutchins said large and small trucks for plowing, sanding, salting and anti-icing are ready to handle highways and rural, non municipal roads regionally.

The Ministry of Transportation requires winter tires or chains for Hwy. 4 and the Malahat section of the Trans Canada Hwy. between Oct. 1 and March 31.

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