A City of Kamloops street sweeper. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
City of Kamloops work crews have been facing a couple of challenges as they ramp up their annual spring street cleaning.
Streets and Environmental Services Manager Glen Farrow says equipment breakdowns have been one issue for city crews to deal with this spring.
“We do have four traditional sweepers as well as our transfer sweeper. And at times we’ve been down to one with different mechanical breakdowns and different challenges there,” he said.
“It’s always a challenge, kind of that balance between enough staffing levels and enough equipment, and this year, it’s been a bit of an equipment challenge.”
Farrow also says below-average temperatures – particularly in the evening and overnight – have also put street sweeping crews behind schedule.
“Not only are we sweeping but a lot of these roads we’re also flushing, applying water, “Farrow said.
“With the colder temperatures and applying water to make it even cleaner in advance of road markings, we would be making an ice rink if we were to apply that water, rather than doing the very thing we’re trying not to do, in making a safe road surface.”
He says the delays persisted despite efforts to try and get ahead on street sweeping this year.
“We look at the weather we have had through January, February, and March. There are certain weeks where we had no snow at all and we were able to sweep a little bit, even in late January,” Farrow said.
“Everyone was questioning why we were doing that and it seems crazy but, whatever we can do to get ahead of things, we do, so that is what we did this year.”
Farrow also noted line painting will begin in Kamloops next week.
“A lot of our crews will be going to shift where you’ll see a lot of the crosswalks being painted along with the markings, will be completed over the coming months, and then the long lines coming into town middle of May,” he added.
“We have seen some other municipalities even on the highways around the area, actually applying paint in advance of sweeping and there has been a fair bit of success around that just based on the higher volumes of traffic at higher speeds.”
Farrow says they usually have sweeping wrapped up by early May and he’s optimistic the job should be down by the middle of next month.
You’ll find a new map here that outlines where street sweeping is set to occur, and where crews have already completed working.
– With files from Bill Cowen
