Spring has finally sprung, and the remains of winter are now visible to all of us. The Road Agent’s crew have been out sweeping the roads and trying to pick up the mess.

Where we have been, the response has been very favorable. Where we have not been yet, I ask for patience; we will be there as soon as possible.

Last winter was very long, and we used almost double the 3,000 cubic yards of sand and salt mix that we normally do. Ice storms in January had us spreading for hours on end. This has left us, like most towns, with mountains of sand to pick up.

There are several reasons for cleaning the sand of the asphalt roads. First, it extends the pavement’s life. Sand left on the road surface will degrade asphalt’s life as much as 25% according to some studies.

Keeping the road surface clean also allows us to see and fix defects in the road surface such as cracks and pot holes. Also, loose sand on roadways is a public safety hazard and can make stopping much more difficult. It can cause vehicles to skid as well. Finally, over time the sand left on a road will fill ditches and cause drainage issues.

Loader-Mounted Sweeper

This year we have opted to use a different technique than in the past. Instead of renting a mobile sweeper, we have opted to use a front-mount hydraulic sweeper on a loader.

There are several reasons for this. Mobile sweepers typically can’t sweep very far off of the road surface. Steel bristles on these machines quickly scrub off all grass as well as the sand. The softer fiberglass bristles on the loader-mounted machine allow us to clean much farther toward the ditch line.

Also, mobile sweepers do not always sweep as clean as a slower loader-mounted unit. The brushes on a mobile sweeper can miss spots, and the operator will not realize it because the broom is under and behind him. On the front-mounted sweeper, the operator can clearly see if there is dip in the road that didn’t get swept clean. He can then back up easily and correct this.

Using the new approach, in most areas we have been able to clean places that we were previously unable to clean without the use of an excavator or backhoe. How much more sand are we picking up this year? Off Boston Hill Road we recovered almost 80 yards of debris. Typically, we would pick up three to four yards from this same road.

Many people have noted we are sending a backhoe out as well as a sweeper, and I would remind people that in previous years we did this as well to pick up the piles left by the mobile sweeper at what seemed like every intersection.

This year, however, because of the extensive use of sand last winter we are using the backhoe to scrape as much as we can off the road surface before the sweeper comes by. This reduces sweeper time and increases bristle life. I have noted that we are not alone in doing this, as I have seen several towns that rent mobile sweepers doing the same thing.

We also experimented with night sweeping in some areas to lessen our impact in certain areas where traffic and car parking makes it difficult to clean during the day, such as the school parking lot and Lawrence Street.