A new high-capacity snowblower is among the three dozen city vehicles that will work to keep sa国际传媒 roads drivable this winter.
The snowblower can process up to 2,750 tonnes of snow per hour, enough to fill 500 dump trucks.
鈥淭his is a powerful new tool at our disposal, so we鈥檙e actually looking forward to a snow event,鈥 roadways operations manager Andrew Schwerdtfeger said Thursday. 鈥淭his new machine can chew through snow really, really quick.鈥
Expectations are that the new snowblower will lessen the likelihood of big rows of snow having to be piled up along busy roads, such as Bernard Avenue in downtown sa国际传媒. It will also be deployed into neighbourhoods that haven鈥檛 typically seen a quick snow removal response after a big storm.
鈥淲e鈥檝e kind of re-tooled the snow removal strategy and in certain areas removal might be easier with this new snowblower,鈥 Schwerdtfeger said. 鈥淚t could show up in places like cul-de-sacs where people normally haven鈥檛 seen one. Removal should be a very quick and efficient process.鈥
The first snowfall of the season was expected overnight Thursday in sa国际传媒 with amounts of up to 4 cms, but more was likely in higher-elevation areas. Snow is also expected on Sunday and Monday.
In total, the city has about 34 pieces of equipment at its disposal to deal with snow, including sanders, plows, graders, and blade-equipped trucks.
