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Snow removal tracker now available on city website
To keep the public up to date on snow removal efforts, the City of Hastings is launching an online snowplow tracking system.
The tracking system gives the almost-real time location of city snow-removal vehicles, and identifies with a color coded system where snow-removal vehicles have been.
This information is intended to let the public know where snow removal has occurred.
A link to the tracking system is available on the “Snow Removal” link on the left side of the home page at cityofhastings.org.
Two years ago, the city implemented AVL (Automatic Vehicle Locator) technology on city vehicles for safety and insurance reasons. The city has now expanded this technology as well as using data from the city GIS (Geographic Information System) software to display vehicles labeled as ‘snow removal’ and display their information to the public. The system also has a layer which tracks street sweepers using a larger timeframe.
A street will be colored green on the map if a snow-removal vehicle has been there in the previous 4 hours, blue if a snow-removal vehicle has been on a street in the previous 4-12 hours, yellow if a snow-removal vehicle has been the street in the last 12 to 24 hours, and red if it has been more than 24 hours since a snow-removal vehicle has been on the street.
Because every city vehicle with a plow attached is connected to the tracking system, it will not be uncommon for streets to show up in colors other than red on the tracking system even if snow removal is not taking place.
Plow icons will appear in the almost-real time location of city snow-removal vehicles.
“This snow removal tracking system will help residents of the city know roughly where the snow-removal vehicles have been and where they are active in the city within a 30-minute time window so they may plan their routes safely during a snowstorm,” said Erik Nielsen, Director of Information Technology for the City of Hastings.
The tracker is available here.
Published Date: 12/ 6/2023