Sidewalk Snow Clearing

Unfortunately, the Town cannot grant this request. The Town is obligated by Ontario's Minimum Maintenance Standards 239/02 to clear all sidewalks in Newmarket for the safety of our residents.

Town staff continuously monitor weather conditions and our sidewalks to ensure they are safe for our community.

Under the Minimum Maintenance Standards 239/02, the Town is required to have winter sidewalk maintenance patrollers that monitor and document various locations throughout Newmarket day and night. They capture conditions such as air and ground temperatures, depth of snow, surface conditions, and forecasted weather. Night patrollers keep standby staff and supervisors updated to help determine when and if winter maintenance is needed.

Sidewalk winter maintenance generally begins at 5 a.m. Depending on weather conditions, sidewalk snow plows will be salting/sanding to ensure the safety of our community. Sidewalk snow plowing begins when there is more than 6 cm of snow accumulation.

Depending on the timing of a snow event and how much snow falls, it may take two days or more to complete both primary and secondary routes. Sometimes we have to plow primary routes twice due to a snow event that lasts over 24 hours or two events in two days. We need to make sure that high traffic routes near the hospital, businesses, and schools are clear.

On weekends, we are limited by the number of staff we have on standby compared to regular weekday staff. For example, if a snow event ends over a Friday night, Town staff and contractors will start to clear primary sidewalks on Saturday morning, then clear secondary sidewalks on Sunday. If there are two events over a weekend, we will complete primary routes over Saturday and Sunday, with secondary routes starting on Monday.

The Town makes an effort to clear sidewalks to the best of our ability during winter weather conditions. The goal during severe weather is to at least plow to a packed state so that the sidewalks are passable and safe for our community.

Sidewalks on Davis Drive, Leslie Street, Bayview Avenue and Yonge Street are considered primary routes. This means that when sidewalk snow clearing operations begin, these sidewalks are cleared first because they lead to business areas, schools, bus routes, and the hospital.

Sometimes after Newmarket sidewalk snow crews have cleared these sidewalks, snow from the road is then plowed onto the sidewalk by York Region road snow plows. This causes the sidewalk to be full of snow again. See the photo below for an example:

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When this occurs, the Town makes a conscious effort to send crews back to these major sidewalk routes to clear them again. The Town is working with York Region to better align snow clearing schedules, but due to the unpredictability of inclement weather, it is sometimes difficult to re-clear the snow right away and we thank residents for their patience as we work.

The Town currently uses a mixture of salt and sand at a ratio of 80% salt to 20% sand. The higher ratio of salt helps with melting the snow, while sand aids with traction until the salt starts to work. This mixture helps to reduce the amount of material in the storm sewer system and reduces the spring cleanup.

The Town does not deliberately damage sod or landscape features when plowing. Many factors contribute to the complexity of sidewalk snow plowing. These include:

• Heavy snowfalls which lead to blowing snow and poor visibility.
• Obstructions such as landscape features or sod that has overgrown onto the sidewalk.
• Early and/or late in the winter season, the lack of windrows makes it difficult for operators to see where the edges of the sidewalks are. Installing sidewalk snow markers on your property can help.
• Curved sidewalks. The plow blade sits 1.25 m (50 in) in front of the front wheels. As the operator tries to keep the blade between the edges of the sidewalk, the equipment front/back wheels take the shortest route, sometimes causing sod damage.
• Wet ground caused by an aggressive thaw cycle.
• Sidewalks that are 1.2 m (48 in) wide or less in older parts of Newmarket may be narrower than the plow blade.

The Town is continuously looking at different ways to minimize the damage done to sod when plowing.

The Town continues to consult neighbouring municipalities and industry leaders on best practices for sidewalk snow clearing. Some modifications/best practices include:

• Cutting the plow blade corners so that they become rounded. This minimizes the damage done to your sod if a small piece of sod gets caught on the blade.
• Angling the plow blade as opposed to plowing straight, so that the width of the blade is smaller when plowing smaller sidewalks.
• Plowing closer to the road on sidewalks that have no boulevard.
• Using different tires on snow plows (agriculture/industrial).

The Town continues to consult industry manufacturers on smaller industrial-grade sidewalk snow plows to minimize damage during sidewalk snow plowing operations.

The Town recently purchased a smaller piece of equipment to complete trial runs in the historical downtown area where the sidewalks are smaller in size. This piece of equipment helps clear sidewalks that are from 1.0 m (40 in) to 1.2 m. (48 in) wide. The equipment does have issues with curb-face sidewalks and with clearing heavy snow due to having less horsepower.

In addition, smaller sidewalks will eventually be phased out due to AODA Legislation (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) that requires sidewalks to be constructed to a standard width of 1.5 m. Due to this increase in standard size for sidewalks, manufacturers are not producing equipment for sidewalk snow clearing that is any smaller at this time.

This is a problem that all municipalities are facing and Town staff continue to look for ways to minimize the damage done to your property by consulting residents, neighbouring municipalities, and industry leaders on best practices and procedures.

If your sidewalk was damaged during sidewalk snow clearing operations, please give us a call at 905-895-5193. Staff will be sent out to repair sidewalks in the spring. 

If your sod was damaged, please fill out the sod repair form.

Please note that the crews that repair damaged sod and damaged sidewalks are different and will not be repaired at the same time.

The Town understands that this may not seem like the most economical solution, but the Town is doing its best to minimize damage when conducting sidewalk snow clearing operations. The Town is committed and obligated to clear sidewalks in Newmarket for the safety of our residents and will continue to seek best practices to minimize damage to sod. You can help the cause by ensuring that your overgrown sod is edged and that landscape features are at least 45 cm (18 in) away from the sidewalk.

All Town of Newmarket and contractor sidewalk snow plows are equipped with GPS tracking systems that monitor their speeds. The recommended speed for a sidewalk snow plow to effectively clear sidewalks is approximately 12 km/h. If you suspect that a sidewalk snow plowing is speeding, please call the Town of Newmarket at 905-895-5193.

Town-owned facility parking lots (Magna Centre, Ray Twinney Recreation Centre, etc.) and staff buildings such as the Town Offices and Operation Centre have plowing priority during the winter months.

The Town has a contractor to assist with our larger facilities such as the Magna Centre, Ray Twinney Complex, and P3 in the Main Street area, including the Community Centre and Riverwalk Commons.

The Town has four routes that typically take five hours to complete. After the plowing is complete, a salt truck will go through the same route.

We primarily use straight salt on Town-owned parking lots. A sand/salt combination is used when temperatures drop too low for salt to be effective.

Legislation introduced in 2020/2021 now allows for overnight parking in town-owned parking lots, as long as you have applied for an overnight parking permit from November 1 to April 15. For more information, please visit newmarket.ca/parkingenforcement.