CORNWALL – The remains of fallen tree limbs and branches along the side of SDG Counties roads are slowly being cleaned up after the April 5 ice storm.
SDG Counties Transportation Director Ben deHaan told The Leader that his department is still working through the mess from the storm but progress continues.
“It’s a road-by-road approach for our crew, with the highest risks going first,” he explained. Staff resources, availability of a bucket truck from a contractor, and risk factor have slowed some progress.
“Since the storm, we’ve had staff working daily at roadside cleanup,” deHaan continued. “We expect to be done sometime in mid-June.”
deHaan’s department prioritized clean up looking first for debris on the roads; then trees or branches that could fall on to roads or buildings; followed by branches in the ditch that could obstruct roadside mowing; and finally hung up limbs or leaning branches that are considered a low risk of causing public harm.
Last week’s wind storm in some parts of SDG dealt a set back in clean up efforts, bringing down hung up branches that were previously considered low risk.
“We found it demoralizing as staff had to go back out to roadsides that they already cleaned up to start all over again,” deHaan said.
“I guess the positive side of it is that there are now fewer branches hung up in roadside trees.”
This article was originally written for the Morrisburg Leader.
