Swift Current City Council made another significant purchase Monday evening, buying an asphalt zipper.

The demo unit that has 10.3 hours of use cost the city $225,987 and was budgeted for in the 2018 capital budget.

Mitch Minken, general manager of infrastructure and operations with the City of Swift Current, said the new concept for the City will make it much easier to break up existing roads compared to their previous method of a jackhammer.

"It's basically a shredder, it just chews up the existing asphalt and then the asphalt millings can be reused," he explained. "(There are) a lot of places we will use [the asphalt millings], mostly for dust control on gravel roads, put a little emulsion with it, and you get a thin membrane asphalt cover. It makes it a real cost-effective way to recycle the asphalt."

The machine will be used to rip up the old layer of asphalt before applying the new layer compared to the old version in which they just added a new layer of asphalt over the older layer.

According to Minken, it won't just be used during the summer though.

"[It will be used for] water main breaks as an example," he said. "We will be able to go in and mill out the pavement ahead of time, so then we're taking it away in a useable form rather than chunks and having to deal with it afterwards."

The City had been eyeing this piece of equipment for a few years, Minken noted, and even used one on North Railway.