
A City of Kamloops street sweeper. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
Street sweepers are continuing to work their way across the city of Kamloops ahead of line paining efforts getting underway in the next couple of weeks.
Streets and Environmental Services Manager Glen Farrow says things are going a little smoother this year compared to 2023 thanks to fewer equipment concerns.
“It’s been better last year when we had three units down for a fairly significant amount of time,” Farrow said. “We have rebuilt the the innards, the elevator, the critical part of those sweepers over the winter so we’re in better shape now than we were last year.”
Farrow says the whole process generally takes about two-and-a-half months to complete and there were some advantages to the milder winter from a spring cleanup perspective.
“Over the last year we’ve swept each month of the year. So, we were sweeping in December and January and we got criticized for it. However, anytime we can pick up that material, it’s better for air quality better for transit better for cyclists,” he said, on NL Mornings.
“So we have attempted to pick up sand where we could on those main arterials in the valley bottom through those through those winter months and we have seen the benefits of that.”
“We are now completed to everything north of Overlanders bridge so everything in Westsyde, Batchelor, Brock, North Shore, all of that part of the community is complete. The one thing to keep in mind too is we are able to go through that area a lot quicker than the Aberdeen, Rose Hill, Sahali areas, just based on the the less amount of material that we’re putting down. So right now we’re working through the downtown core and making good progress there as well.”
Farrow says street sweeping is basically the first step in the spring cleaning process.
“We need to get all that material picked up in advance of crack sealing and and line painting is where we start getting the calls on,” Farrow said. “Things like ‘I can’t see the lines here and there’ but that’s definitely the the next step in this spring cleanup process and we will start you’ll see painting crews begin in the next couple of weeks.
In terms of what happens to that debris once it is picked up, Farrow says it mostly just ends up in the landfill.
“We use it for cover material on site there,” he said.
“In the past we attempted to rescreen it and use it for sand and application in the future, but it’s so dirty, there’s so much debris in it. Over time that sand the rough edges on it to get lost so it’s not as effective when putting it down for snow and ice control. So most of it is utilized at our landfills for cover material.”
You can find the city’s street sweeping map here.