City of Charlottetown adds $291K snowplow to fleet

The city of Charlottetown has purchased a new $291,000 snowplow, which is expected to arrive sometime in early February.

It's a larger, tandem plow truck equipped with two rear axles and is similar to those used by the province, said Scott Adams, manager of public works.

Aging fleet

The new snowplow will replace one of the trucks in the current fleet.

The purchase price for the snow plow was within the budget initially set, Adams said.

The city's current fleet has eight dump trucks capable of plowing and six loader trucks — three of the city's trucks are more than 12 years old, Adams said.

"Our fleet is starting to age and it's starting to show its age. We have our team of mechanics who are constantly attending to these trucks," he said.

With a particularly snowy autumn the snow trucks had their work cut-out — in recent snowfalls, some of the trucks weren't operational, Adams said.

Mechanical issues after storms

"We thought we could get through fairly well this year but the snow hit us sooner this year and we've had quite a bit of snow since then," he said.

Typically the city has about eight snowplow vehicles on the road at any given time but in the last storm only five were operational.

"Most storms we can go with six — no problem. So we just want to make sure going forward for the remainder of the season and in future years … we're not constantly repairing our trucks after a snowstorm."  

The new snowplow will be used on larger streets in Charlottetown including University Avenue, Capital Drive and other major roads in the downtown core, Adams said.

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