That sand that kept you from slipping on city sidewalks this winter is about to go into retirement at the city dump.
The sand, now contaminated by oil, animal feces, and bits of metal and plastic plus other debris, is used at the Merrick Landfill where it is reused as cover for the garbage you put out over the winter. The City quantifies roads in "lane km." and maintains about 810 lane km of roadway this way.
See: City street sweepers are busy giving that winter sand a second life
Roads and Traffic Manager Scott Franks tells BayToday that, "City staff sweep sidewalks and boulevards onto the roadway and the sand is picked up by a back-hoe and loaded into a truck. We refer to this as 'bulk pick-up.' This is typically done on main arteries and other roads with curb and gutter. After this is completed, a sweeping contractor comes behind to do the final clean-up. This approach has been proven to be more efficient and greatly reduces time."
The contractor uses four sweepers to work nights on main arteries for five to six weeks to pick up sweepings along curbs and centerlines, preparing for the city's street painting program which usually starts late May. Those big brushes on the sweepers need to be replaced every 24 hours of use time.
Once main streets are done, contractors are sent into subdivisions during the days, and this can take up to two months depending on the weather. There is also a sweeper that does maintenance throughout the rest of the summer and fall.
"Ultimately this depends on the type of winter we have and how much sand is placed throughout the winter," explains Franks. "This winter we spread roughly 10,000 tonnes of winter sand. Roughly half that amount will eventually be picked up through sweeping and other spring clean-up. During snow removal operations through the winter, a portion of that is picked as snow content."
One of the reasons the cleanup is done as soon as possible is to keep the sand from entering the storm sewers.
"One thing I would like to bring to light is, people need to be mindful that spring came early this year…only a couple weeks ago we were still plowing and sanding. Spring clean-up operations typically don’t start until later in April, but we are well ahead of the game and we are only in the first full week of April. City crews have been doing bulk pick up for a couple of weeks and the sweeping contractor started this week.
"I would also like to ask motorists and members of the public to be mindful and courteous of the clean-up operations and traffic control. Be respectful of the crews and the service they are providing at all times while passing through clean-up operations," said Franks.
An annual concern is people sweeping off their own driveways and lawns and creating mounds on city allowances which can cause serious road hazards. If you have a pile of dirt at the edge of the road it can cause serious obstacles for bicycles.