By Jessie Weisner

Warm weather allows frequent street sweeping

Jan 14, 2019 | 12:57 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — When winter is over and the snow is melted, rock and dirt debris make road conditions unpredictable.

Due to of our lack of snow this winter, the city has been getting a head start on cleaning the roads by street sweeping.

“Over the last month when we’ve gotten temperatures at or above zero degrees we get out,” says Jeremy Petryshyn, manager of operations for municipal works for the City of Medicine Hat. “We try to get a jump on picking up some of the material that went out for our winter operations.”

The city usually gets out a few times a year to pick up some of the debris on the roads, but this winter they’ve been able to get out more than usual.

A sharp contrast to last year where snow covered the ground for most of the season.

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“Last year we had more snow on the ground at this time and we were dealing with snow and ice control more than we were picking up material,” says Petryshyn. “We saw several storms come through so we didn’t have the opportunity to do this type of work.

The street sweepers have been out over the last few weeks, mainly on priority one routes.

“We’re focusing on our priority ones, they’re the areas that we put the most material down so those are obviously the ones we focus on to pick up the material,” says Petryshyn. “They’re also the ones that have the most vehicle traffic and tend to have the most pedestrian traffic.”

Although it may be rare that you see one of the machines, the city still wants you to take some precautions when passing them.

“Just like all of our equipment, our equipment is big and our operators are watching a lot of stuff so give them lots of room to do their work and please try and be patient so they can get the job done and make the city the best they can.”

The regular six to eight week street sweeping program will begin around Easter, and will start with the school zones around Medicine Hat.