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The city has leased four Blue Gryb Rotating Icebreakers as a pilot project, reports Donald Dinelle, the city’s director of fleet services.

“The GRYB icebreaker attachment hooks onto the front of the sidewalk tractor and can be used to break up ice on the sidewalks when needed,” he said.

The lease is part of a larger contract for six months each year over the next three years. The cost is under wraps – it’s considered commercially confidential.

The Victoriaville, Quebec-based Gryb touts its icebreaker as using less chemical ice melt and salt while crushing ice up to five centimetres thick on sidewalks three times as fast as standard equipment even in very low temperatures.

Brian Scott of the public works department was out with the new equipment in Blackburn Hamlet Tuesday afternoon and explained that the 1,000-kilo attachment and its nearly 800 steel spikes perforate the ice so that salt can penetrate and workers can clear sidewalks to bare pavement. Crews were able to clear about 10 cm of ice in a few passes, he said, instead of just putting spreading sand and grit on the ice for traction.

Urban councillors and their staff met with city staff this week to brainstorm solutions to icy sidewalks. They heard that freeze-thaw cycles have made for extra icy sidewalks this year because the thick layer of ice is hard to remove once it accumulates, unlike on roads where ice is melted away by the friction of hot tires.

In the 2020 budget, McKenney would like to see money for city staff to reassess sidewalk clearing standards and come back with recommendations.