Skip to content

City of Airdrie to conduct annual street sweeping program

The City of Airdrie is revving up its street sweepers in preparation for its annual residential street sweeping program set to begin on April 26.

The City of Airdrie is revving up its street sweepers in preparation for its annual residential street sweeping program, set to begin on April 26.  

According to Mike Avramenko, roads team lead with the City of Airdrie, the program makes a clean sweep of approximately 267 lane kilometres of residential streets, along with collector roadways – a road that connects local streets and arterial roads – for a total of 380 kilometres.  

“Those are major routes within the communities,” he said. “We have approximately 1,300 tonnes of material out there on the ground this year and more than half of it gets distributed on your arterial roads.” 

Avramenko said much of the work to sweep the arterial or major roadways in the city has been completed already, with work beginning soon after a recent snowfall.

He said individual neighbourhoods are still in need of a good sweep though, adding the City will implement its tag-and-tow program again this year as part of its road-clearing efforts.   

“We’re asking folks to watch for the big orange signs that egress into the communities,” he said of the signs that will be erected 48 hours in advance of street cleaning. “They’ll be dated usually two days from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

"Have your car off the street to avoid it being tagged and short-towed.” 

He said if your car does get short-towed, it will be relocated to another spot in your community and you will be subject to a $75 towing fee from Airdrie Towing and Recovery services, who will be responsible to field all vehicle recovery efforts. 

Avramenko maintained the City does everything they can to avoid towing residents and employs efforts to get a hold of the vehicle's owner through door-knocking. 

"Our intent is not to try and tow. It's not a cash cow for the City," he said, adding the program has been running for approximately 10 years. "It's just a program that works really well in partnership [with residents]."

He added when residents are diligent in moving their vehicles in time for street sweeping, the City can ensure a full sweep of the residential roadways without any debris-covered patches left behind.

"Every year, I think it's a combination of us doing the work and the residents helping out. The program runs smoothly if all the cars are off the road."

Last year, the number of vehicles towed during residential street sweeping (factoring in population growth) stayed relatively the same as in previous years. 

"The longer residents have lived in the communities they know [when] our program starts and they'll try to support each other and get the cars off the road," he said. "It makes our program run really smoothly."

In preparation for the start of the program, the City will be placing signage around the community advising of the upcoming program start date. 

Avramenko said the April 26 start date is weather dependent. If another spring snowstorm hits, street sweeping will be suspended until a later date.

Once the program starts, Avramenko said the crew moves through each neighbourhood quickly.  

"The last few years, we've been able to complete the program in three weeks and that's just working Monday to Friday," he said.

He added the main reason to complete annual street sweeping is to keep the city clean and safe for residents. 

"You have a lot of activity with the snow being gone now," he said. "There's lots of multi-modes of transportation with people on motorcycles and bicycles. And you're seeing scooters out as well, so we want to make sure there's no slip and trip areas. 

"Most importantly, we don't want all the silt going down into the river watershed."

He said if the team is successful in collecting debris off the roads before heavy rainfall begins, they can prevent pollution from entering the river, ensuring cleaner water ways for everyone. 

For those interested in keeping up to date on the City's street sweeping efforts, and for a map showing tentative dates and progression of the program, visit airdrie.ca

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks