Despite the official “winter season” not kicking off until November 1st, City of Grande Prairie snow removal crews will be out and about taking care of the October snowfall.
With upwards of 5 centimetres already falling as of noon on Tuesday, and another couple of centimetres expected Wednesday, Transportation Manager Robert Carroll says they’re getting machinery out as fast as possible.
“We’ve got a good percentage of our equipment ready, [but] the issue is, a lot of the equipment that we use in the winter is also our summer equipment. There is a bit of a delay, as they need to go into the shop, get inspected, and get a changeover, so it takes a bit of time.”
“Right now we’ve got five of our sanders out, they’re all around the city, and we should get this under control pretty shortly,” he says.
Carroll adds one of the major hurdles faced by crews is the completion of summer construction projects, many of which, like the 99 Avenue repaving, continuing on as the season changes.
“We are optimists and hope the snow doesn’t come and holds off long enough for us to get everything done, but it’s a short season and a lot of capital work was being done this year.”
“Hopefully we will get another break in the weather next week, and we can get the rest of our jobs buttoned-down and completed before the real winter comes,” he says.
Carroll adds that it’s expected that snow removal of any kind will take place primarily on main arterial roads within the City of Grande Prairie.