LETHBRIDGE — Though southern Alberta has yet to see its first snowfall to cap off the Canadian winter, the City of Lethbridge says it’s ready for when white finally covers the ground.
This year, two truck models have been added to the city’s fleet. The Giletta Sander is popular in Europe, but its primary purpose is not clearing snow from the roads, but rather predicting the snowfall and applying a liquid to the road that will make it easier for plows to clear it the next day.
The other model, the purpose-built snow plow, is not so much new, but simply a more advanced and developed version of older snow plows. Its primary purpose is to clear the roads of snow and ice, but it does so with automated plows and a laser system for the side plow, both of which allow the operator to focus on the road.
“Some of these purpose-built plow trucks are quite expensive,” said Lee Perkins, who manages transportation operations for the City of Lethbridge. “We do utilize them in the summer, but they are purpose-built for winter, and again without the support of senior leaders and mayor and council, none of these initiatives would’ve been possible.”
The City is also seeing advanced sander systems, as well as winter tires on their plows for the first time. Both models are new to Alberta, as Lethbridge is now using trucks that are foreign even to Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer.
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