Crews from the Portland Bureau of Transportation began sweeping up the hundreds of cubic yards of sand and gravel that was spread on roadways to provide some traction for motorists during the most recent snowstorm, The Oregonian reports. Crews will work day and night, as well as weekends to get the job done as soon as possible, but the process is expected to take weeks.
The bureau told the newspaper that it started sweeping over the Jan. 21-22, 2017 weekend, focusing on bike lanes where much of the gravel had been pushed.
John Brady, a spokesman for the bureau, explained to the newspaper that, for each day sand and gravel was put down, it will take three to five days to sweep it up, because the city has more spreader trucks than street-sweepers, and the sweepers only travel at 5 miles per hour. That adds up to approximately three weeks to get most of the sand and gravel off the roads.
“We had just finished cleaning up the sand and gravel from the last storm when this storm hit,” Brady told the newspaper. “Essentially, we’re starting where we left off.”
