What Was That Strange Vehicle on Youree Drive Friday Morning?

I saw something on the way to work in Shreveport this week that shocked me. It probably shouldn't have, but it did.  As I'm traveling north on Youree Drive I saw a mystery vehicle on the roadway. It was accompanied by a couple of other vehicles with lights flashing.

They were moving very slowly and I really had to do a double take to realize what I was seeing.

This little caravan of vehicles with lights flashing was headed north on Youree at East Washington. But then this mystery vehicle pulled over into the left turn lane and made a U-turn and started heading south on Youree.

Get our free mobile app

What Was this Mystery Vehicle?

Well as I got close to it, I quickly realized it was a street sweeper!! Now I could not see any logos on the truck. So I'm not sure whose street sweeper this was. A KEEL listener tells me this is actually a sweeper "owned by a State contractor." Information was also provided indicating one of Shreveport's city owned street sweepers was totaled in a rollover accident and the only other one the city owns is rarely used. I do know Former Mayor Adrian Perkins bought a couple of these machines, but I have not seen them in use except for the big unveiling during a publicity event a couple of years ago.

It looks like the someone has taken action to get some of our streets cleaned and they are doing this work during these overnight hours to make sure they don't impact traffic too much.

About 10 years ago, Shreveport bought 2 new street sweepers and hired some city workers to put them to use. But they were used sporadically and ultimately broke down.

It's my hope that this work of cleaning up the streets, especially Youree Drive might help alleviate flooding along Youree Drive because some of the debris gathering on the side of the road might be blocking our drains.