The head of public works for the City of Steinbach says they put approximately 35% more sand on the roads this year than they would have during an average winter.

Randy Reimer says in an average year they would use between 1,500 and 2,000 cubic yards of sand in the winter but this year they used between 2,000 and 2,500 cubic yards. He notes the extra sand was put down because of the light snowfall and freezing rain in December and early January. He adds clean up will begin when the weather cooperates.

“We are just waiting for warmer temperatures. Looking at the long-range forecast over the next few weeks, our daily temperatures are still going to be in the minuses. When we are out sweeping streets we are using water so we need temperatures that are above freezing to do a proper job so we are still looking like we could be a week and a half to two weeks away yet.”

Reimer says the sand that is collected by street sweepers is too dirty to reuse on the streets so it is repurposed as cover material at the landfill. He adds once street sweeping begins they will get ready to clean up boulevards.

“We would like to get going at it as soon as we can but we want to make sure the boulevards are dry enough and the frost is out so that we are not going to be damaging peoples yards, so we try to keep that to a minimum.”

Reimer says their fiscal year ends December 31st and thanks to very little snow since January they have not used much of their snow clearing budget. He adds this means they will be looking good going into fall 2018.