New interactive map launched in Sudbury that shows which roads have been cleared and how recently

As a major snow storm makes its way across the region, people in Sudbury will have access to a new interactive map on the city website that reports where streets and sidewalks have most recently been serviced.

Dan Thibeault is the manager of Linear Infrastructure and Technical Support Services with the city.

He says the map is a tool to be open and transparent with citizens about where and when their roads are being serviced.

Thibeault says the city vehicles plow, sand and salt 3,600 lane kilometres of road and 300 kilometres of sidewalk.

"That's nice as a number," he said. "But when you put that on a map as a visual representation, you just see, in one glance, all of our road network and you can see that there's activity going on across the city."

Thibeault suggests people can use the information to determine if the routes to their destinations have been recently cleared, helping in navigation.

The streets on the map are colour-coded, and the information updated every 30 minutes.

"So there's service within the last 12 hours, service within the last 12 to 24 hours, service within the last 24 to 48 hours and then "no recent servicing block" that's just anything over 48 hours.

Thibeault says the trucks themselves have units that send information about their location to the city database, and the city may use the information itself to determine when routes are completed.

The city is asking that you wait 24 hours after a storm ends before contacting 311 if you still need service.