The Public Works Department provides the municipality with general operating and maintenance, including graveling, dust control, road construction and repairs, brush removal and snow plowing on subdivision and municipal roads, as well as roadside allowances.

The Public Works Department can be broken up into distinct areas of operation. The Maintenance Department maintain the gravel and paved local roads, as well as performing preventative maintenance activities throughout the year to extend the longevity of municipal roads to keep them drivable and safe. Winter maintenance includes sanding and plowing, bridge inspections, brushing and gravel stockpiling. The Construction Department builds local roads within the municipality each year as needed. Gravel pit reclamation and development is also included within their scope. The size of the projects and weather patterns has a large effect on this program. The Shop Crew is responsible for looking after the maintenance of all the equipment.
 
 
In 2009, our construction crew improved approximately 22 km of road. The M.D. used private contractors to complete 28 km of road upgrade initiatives on Minburn Road and Township Road 42-2. The M.D. also used a private contractor to base pave 10 km of the Correction Line Road north of Irma and 13 km of the South Chauvin Road. The M.D. completed an 8 km base stabilization project near Greenshields in 2009. A private contractor used terracem, which is a specialized cement product to stabilize the base of the road. The road was then graveled and finished with a chip seal. This was a pilot project in 2009 and proved to be quite successful. Our plans are to undertaking another similar project in 2010 with our own forces this time. The Road Stabilization process is significantly cheaper than conventional paving and may prove very cost effective for our roads with lighter traffic. In 2009 the M.D. received approximately $2.8 million in grant funding for these major road projects. Of this $1,960,000 was from the Federal and Provincial Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, which was a program created by our senior governments to counter the federal recession.

We completed approximately 13 km of road oiling in 2009. Our oiling crew spent much of its time in 2009 applying calcium dust control, which is a new product for the M.D. We had relatively positive results with the calcium. We will try more in 2010 and monitor its effectiveness. New for our oiling program was a refined oil product called SC 250. A major benefit of this product over regular crude oil and the MC 250 we have used in the past is that it takes more time to cure. This results in more time to work the product and complete the road prior to the oil setting up. Time will tell if this will stand the test of heavy traffic and our climate. We will monitor this program as well in 2010.

Road maintenance continued as usual with 109,000 cubic yards of gravel applied to our gravel roads. We use both private and M.D. trucks to haul and spread the gravel. We are maintaining our grader fleet at seven (7) graders with one additional grader being used to supplement other graders where it is needed. To keep up our stockpiles of gravel, we hired a private contactor to crush approximately 177,000 cubic yards of gravel. We purchased an additional 20,000 cubic yards to meet the graveling needs of the area north of Wainwright.