Brand-new snow removal equipment hit Kelowna, B.C., roadways for the first time Monday morning.
Kelowna’s infrastructure operations department manager, Geert Bos, says the previous machine needed to be retired as it was old and would continually break down.
“The previous unit … I believe it was 33 years old, so it had seen its heyday,” said Bos.
The new, high-tech snow-blower machine, which is faster and more efficient, came with a hefty price tag of $230,000.
Bos says the purchase was pre-planned and doesn’t come out of or affect the snow removal budget.
“When we make these budget decisions, there is a lot of things we’ve got to weigh,” said Bos.
“We’ve got to make sure the budget is available and we also have to recover the investment we make, right? So we recover it by using the equipment.”
According to Bos, the snow removal budget took a significant hit due to the early season snowfall.
Currently, there is about $285,000 left in the 2022 snow removal budget.
“We started off the winter with $585,000 remaining in the budget for 2022. The past event we spent approximately $350,000 so far,” said Bos.
Meanwhile, Kelowna’s roadway operations manager, Andrew Schwerdtfeger, spent Monday morning training staff.
“This unit is rated for 2,750 tons of snow an hour,” said Schwerdtfeger.
“Where it really shines is in a rural cross-section, where it can just blow it over the sidewalk into a ditch on the other side of the road.”
The City of Kelowna wants to remind residents to be patient as it continues to work hard on clearing the remainder of the snow off the streets.