For Immediate Release

Monday, March 19, 2012

City starts street sweeping a month early due to warm weather

Cleanup efforts focus on Downtown and regional streets

Winnipeg, MB. - Warmer than average temperatures have allowed the City of Winnipeg to get an early start on spring cleanup this year as crews focused street sweeping efforts Downtown on Sunday night and will continue tonight. Also, beginning Tuesday night, the street sweeping operation will be expanded to include all regional streets across the city including bridges and underpasses.

It is expected this preliminary cleanup operation will use about 75 pieces of heavy equipment and will take about two weeks to complete.

Once this initial round of sweeping on main routes has been completed, sweeping efforts will shift to the remaining streets, sidewalks, back lanes, parks, and boulevards which will get underway on a city-wide basis in mid-April, weather permitting.

"We’ve never started street sweeping operations in March, but warm weather, a quick melt and dry conditions have allowed the City to start sweeping Downtown and on main routes about a month ahead of schedule," said Ken Boyd, Manager of Streets Maintenance. "This initial round of street sweeping will remove sand and other debris from main routes and will help to control dusty conditions.”

During spring clean-up operations the City places temporary "no parking" signs to restrict on-street parking on some streets that are scheduled to be cleaned. When these signs are in place on a city street, motorists are urged to move their vehicles to alternative parking locations during the posted times. Vehicles parked in violation of the temporary parking ban may be ticketed and towed.

Motorists and pedestrians are asked to use caution around heavy equipment which will be operating throughout the city over the coming weeks.

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Media inquiries should be directed to the City of Winnipeg Media Inquiry Line at 204-986-6000 or via email at MediaInquiry@winnipeg.ca

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