Toronto will deploy cement trucks to help plow snow this winter

The City of Toronto is preparing for winter in a big way.

A spokesperson says officials have repurposed 33 tri-axle vehicles, in this case, concrete trucks, typically used in the summer to join the fleet of snow plows.

“The City of Toronto is working with their winter maintenance contractors to make sure that they are ready to clear snow this winter,” said Vince Sferrazza, Director of Operations and Maintenance, Transportation Services. “These preparations include ensuring that every safety precaution possible has been taken on all of the 1,100 vehicles in the fleet.”

Sferrazza says the re-used cement trucks will provide winter maintenance on several main roads, including Avenue Road, Kingston Road and Steeles Avenue.

“Using these industry-standard vehicles to safely provide winter maintenance plowing on arterial roads is an innovative way to ensure vehicles that generally would be idle during winter months continue to be used year-round, offering potential cost savings while meeting the city’s winter maintenance service levels to plow arterial roads,” Sferrazza added.

City officials say the 33 concrete vehicles are similar to dump trucks. Sferrazza says contractors will also use them for winter maintenance purposes.

“They will all be equipped with the necessary safety equipment, and each driver will successfully complete driver safety training.”

This past January, Toronto and the GTHA were hit by a nasty winter storm that cost the city more than $17 million. The crews cleared out around 180,000 tonnes of snow. It was the first blizzard warning issued in Toronto since 1978.

During the winter storm event that saw snow accumulations of 55 cm in just 15 hours, over 500 TTC buses had to be dug out, and over 60,000 calls were made to 3-1-1.