As spring arrives, work crews in Summerland are clearing sand and debris from roads in the community.
Crews have started sweeping the streets in the downtown area and in Trout Creek. However, there are many more roads to be cleared within the community.
Summerland has 330 lane kilometres of roads. This is the equivalent of driving from Summerland to Greenwood and back.
Joe Mitchell, director of works and infrastructure for Summerland, said one street sweeper is in use at present, but starting April 1, three pieces of equipment will be in use.
“All of Summerland will be done by the end of April,” he said.
The street sweeping is done in a two-step process. First, streets are cleared of the bulk of sand. This is loaded into a truck and hauled away. Then, once the initial street sweeping is done, a vacuum sweeper is used to clear the remaining sand particles. This is a slow process as it takes several passes to cover the same amount of road area.
Mitchell said the street sweeping creates a bit of dust, but it is short-lived. When the vacuum sweeper is used, water is added to reduce the amount of dust created.
Motorists are urged to move their vehicles off the streets if they hear or see the sweeper in their neighbourhoods.
