Street Maintenance

Street Sweeping

Includes sweeping of all HRM owned paved streets, from approximately April 15 to November 15. Street sweeping is a planned program using HRM owned mechanical sweepers with assigned routes and schedules for the individual sweeping units. In areas where day parking is a problem, scheduled night sweeping is provided. Traffic islands are done manually.

Service Truck / Litter Pick-Up

Provides for year round service trucks in each region of the HRM Service Core Area to respond to service calls (i.e. clean-up of accidents, dead animal retrieval, complaints, checking barricade installations, etc.) at most hours of the day. Also includes: first response to on-street emergencies (snow and ice); provides for the year round installation, repair, replacement and servicing of 759 litter baskets throughout the urban areas and the continued extension of this service in commercial districts. Provides for limited manual litter pick-up between approximately April 1 and November 30. Provides for disposal of dead marine mammals and the pick-up of illegally dumped materials on HRM right-of-ways. Service truck response is provided by HRM equipment and employees. Litter pick-up is provided by a combination of in-house resources and private partnering with volunteer groups, service clubs and the Adopt-A-Highway project. The litter clean-up program is carried out on arterials and collectors on an ‘as required' basis. Central Business Districts and commercial areas are picked up as required in conjunction with litter basket servicing.

Leaf Pick-Up

Provides for the collection of leaves from gutters, streets, and grass areas between the curbs and sidewalks. The leaf pick-up program includes:

clean up and removal of leaves on a demand basis and as available resources permits. Whenever possible, leaves are used for composting. The planned and scheduled leaf pick-up program is carried out over a 3 to 4 week period each fall normally during the month of November by municipal employees, utilizing tow-behind leaf collectors, street sweepers, catch basin cleaners, etc.

Asphalt Patching

Provides for the planned hot mix patching of HRM owned streets during the summer months on a priority basis as determined by the pavement management system, site inspections, and service requests from HRM residents and councillors. Also provides for winter pothole patching on an ‘as required' basis. Using a strategic mix of contract services and HRM resources, a planned program of hot mix asphalt patching during the summer months is initialed on a priority basis, based on the Pavement Condition Management System, service requests and field inspection data and within the approved budgetary limits. The emergency winter asphalt patching will be carried out on an ‘as required' basis utilizing the most effective and economical methods and materials available, i.e., hot mix asphalt, cold mix asphalt.

Gravel Road Maintenance

Provides HRM residents using HRM owned gravel roads with an acceptable, safe road surface for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Provides for washout and base repairs, regravelling, grading and dust control. Also provides road shoulder maintenance. Road grading consists of cutting or scarifying the surface to a depth sufficient to remove potholes, ruts or corrugations and restore the crown to a minimum of 2% to 3% cross slope. Gravel is added as required to maintain structural adequacy, usually in the spring. In late spring or early summer, following proper grading of roads and with adequate moisture present, a 35% solution of liquid calcium chloride is applied at the rate of 4 flake equivalent tonnes per kilometer for dust control, and for stabilization. Thereafter, it is applied as required after assessment by the supervisor. Base repairs are carried out based on investigation of the causes for base failure and corrective action required is carried out prior to repair. This work is of a planned nature and carried out from May to September. Washout repairs are carried out as required, year-round.

Recycled milled asphalt shall be used whenever possible.Road shoulder maintenance includes repairs of low and washed out areas, and may require addition of some granulars to restore adequate shoulder structure. Complete regravelling of shoulders is carried out as required based on inspection and as availability of resources permits.

Guardrail maintenance

Provides for repair, replacement, and new installation of guardrails on HRM owned roads. Also provides repairs to retaining walls including graffiti removal. A planned program of guardrail replacement, repairs, and small new installations (less than $10,000) is prepared based on a prioritized requests and site inspections. Immediate attention is given to damaged guardrails of a potentially hazardous nature. A planned program of retaining wall repair and small replacements (less than $10,000) is prepared annually based on inspection and service requests. Immediate attention is given to damaged sections of a potentially hazardous nature.