In the future Airdrie will see a brand new truck and sander unit to bring the total number of snow trucks to seven within Airdrie.

In the original capital budget, the purchase of a new truck was approved, but with the way prices are going, an amendment had to be made to add an additional $57,000 to bring the total amount for the truck and sander unit to $505,000.

Mike Avramenko, the Roads Team Leader for the City of Airdrie explained why they are buying this truck.

"Currently in our fleet, we have six tandem sander plow trucks. And we have six operators on those shifts. So this is going to actually support some road network growth."

Avramenko mentioned this addition is welcomed as some changes might be on the way for the upcoming season.

"The plan is to take the existing three arterial routes and break them down and make four. We'll actually have four priority one routes, which will improve the frequency and the amount of time it takes to complete one pass on the route. So in theory it will provide a level of service improvement." 

Of course, this would all depend on how big the snowfall is explained Avramenko. 

Currently, the priority one routes include multi-lane roads such as Main Street, 8 Street, East Lake Boulevard, Veterans Boulevard, and Yankee Valley Boulevard. School zones on school days are also included in the priority one snow-clearing level.

Sadly this brand-new truck will take some time to arrive.

"There's a high percentage we won't see it this year. But to absorb the truck we have another truck that was a replacement unit that's supposed to arrive this year. We're going to hold off letting the other one go to auction and we're going to run that one as well this winter. We're still going to bump the crews up to seven and have seven trucks on the road [this upcoming winter season]."  

Avramenko finished off by saying it is going to be nice to have this extra truck.

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