Concerns raised over snow clearing on sections of Route 19 on the South Shore

Some residents who use Route 19 are concerned about the clearing of ice and snow along sections of the road during the winter months.

Route 19 connects numerous communities on the South Shore from Rocky Point to DeSable.

It serves as the main road residents take to get to town and people say that when winter rolls in, parts of the route aren't being properly cleared off.

"They don't appear to be plowed properly," said resident Susan Taylor. 

"You hardly get any sanding or salting. They're always very icy and it's just a little bit treacherous to drive on."

Taylor said nothing has changed since she moved to Afton nearly seven years ago.

She said the road is fine up to the Afton Community Centre.

"Past that point, people are left to their own devices," Taylor said. "Now that it's becoming such a busy area out here with so many homes being built and so many people living out here, it just would be better to see that the roads are salted, plowed in a proper fashion too."

Peter Bevan-Baker, the MLA for the area, said it's a public safety issue in the winter and residents have been reaching out with their concerns.

"I've had over 100 emails or bits of correspondence just in the last year on this stretch of highway," he said.

"I didn't look at all the other highway complaints I've had, but I would say that if that's a barometer of concern then this area is without doubt the thing I hear most about in my district."

In a written statement to CBC, the province said that Route 19 is a secondary road and is plowed like other similar roads across the province.

The province also said that beyond the Afton Community Centre, the roads are not salted, only sanded.

The department of transportation is currently reviewing the area's road plowing operations.

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