Heather Wright/The Independent

Lambton County road crews have been working around the clock, trying to keep up with heavy snow and high winds. And, it’s lead county officials to take a second look at the 2025 snow budget.

That’s according to Jason Cole, general manager of infrastructure and development services.

There have been several major snowfalls in the last week, including a double-whammy on the weekend which was predicted to dump up to 30 centimetres of snow. Couple that with high winds, and Cole says the roads were difficult.

“When we have events like that, it’s just all hands on deck. We run around the clock,” he says. The county has 12 plows. There are also patrollers our out monitoring weather and road conditions, equipment applying anti-icing agent ahead of freezing conditions, and graders and other equipment cleaning up hazardous areas.

Normally, the winter road crews are out on a morning and afternoon shift, but during a storm event, that’s stretched out.

“It’s just been everybody out all the equipment on the road and going around the clock.”
Cole says over the weekend a lot of the work included pushing back snowbanks to keep the roads from drifting back in.

All this snow has stretched the county’s budgets.

Cole says while the January-February part of 2024 was fairly light for snow, the tail end of the year has more than made up for it although they were able to stay within the $2.5 million budget.

And this winter’s storms are also putting a dent in the 2025 budget. Cole expects to be over the submitted winter control budget for the months of January and February and is updating the cost estimate before budget talks begin.

“This year, the weekend coverage has been … almost consistent. And then the number of just a sheer number of events and high winds, our plow teams have been diligent. They have just been working their tails off to try to keep everything covered with sand and salt and get that snow removed.”

“They’re very dedicated team. They are proud of the work that they do, and we really want county roads to be a reliable, safe system to get around on each during those events. And they’ve done, and they’ve done a fantastic job of keeping up this year. I can’t give them enough credit.”

Cole asks people to be mindful of the drivers as the snowy weather continues. “When they’re out on the highways, just be patient, follow along for as long as you need to, and give them room to do the work that they need to do.”