Come December 1st, the City of Grande Prairie says they will start to clear your windrows left behind by the current snow removal program. The pilot project has been given a budget of $350,000, which was based on an estimate of crews going through neighbourhoods four times this winter.
Transportation Manager Robert Carroll says they will be adding another piece of equipment to each crew to help with the work.
“They’ll be going in to clear a path basically so that the residents and their vehicles have access to the road. Because of where these driveways are, a lot of times it’s going to be difficult to get them cleared 100 per cent but we are going to do the best we can. It’s difficult to find somewhere to put the snow sometimes.”
However, the windrows cleared won’t be trucked away. Instead, they will be pushed aside or stored on the property frontage.
“To haul all of the snow out of a residential area, that’s not the intention,” Carroll adds. “It’s to basically push it aside so that the vehicles will be able to get out the driveways with out having a windrow to block them in.”
The extra work will be handled by contractors but the details for the pilot project are still being work out. Carroll also says that some areas of the city will be approached differently than others.
“Some neighbourhoods, it’s not going to be an issue because they’ve got nice wide green spaces between driveways, but then some of the newer areas are very congested. There’s very little room between driveways and finding somewhere to put the snow is going to be a challenge.”
The pilot doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the green pylon program for elderly and disabled residents, but Carroll says in addition to the 1200 participants in that program they will clear another approximately 8,500 driveways.
The outcome of this year’s pilot project will determine the future of the pylons. The whole windrow removal program will be evaluated at the end of the winter and at that time city council will decide how to move forward.