‘Fall sweep’ being done across Windsor

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The City of Windsor is conducting what’s known as its “fall sweep” as street sweepers are out trying to clear debris from curbsides and off the roads.

The city has already swept up over 2,000 tonnes of material from residential streets and the main routes so far this year, and that’s not even including all the leaves and other items that will be swept up during the fall sweep.

Senior Manager of Environmental Services Jim Leether says the process plays an important role in helping the pollution control plants and flood mitigation efforts.

“That’s material that we prevent from going down the catch basins and the sewers in the city. It helps us prevent flooding events when we have big rain events or a lot of water on the street,” he says.

According to Leether there are three city-wide sweeps a year.

“Residential areas during the day, and if anyone is ever around late at night or early hours in the morning, they’ll see us out doing what we call our arterial roads or our downtown core that we do overnight. At midnight on Tecumseh Road, Walker Road, Wyandotte, etc. Even the expressway,” he says.

He added, they’re getting a large amount of material off the road.

“Which I think is important for our sewers and the overall health of our sanitation system here. It reduces some of the material that’s getting through to our two pollution control plants. I can’t speak for them, but I have to think it helps.”

The city has four street sweepers covering hundreds of kilometres of roadways.