Street Sweeping With the Best

June 7, 2016

“We run our sweepers every day of the week except the weekend, for nine to nine-and-a-half months of the year—even some days of December when the weather is mild. We don’t put water in the tank when it might freeze,” says Dale Chumley, chief of stormwater for the city of Lafayette, IN.

Lafayette has 261 road miles to sweep. That figure equates to 686 lane miles. Annual rainfall measurement is 36.58 inches. Older residential sections of the city have lots of trees, predominantly ash and red maple.

Lafayette’s four street sweepers run regular routes on the same days. Whatever day residents put out their garbage for the city to collect, the sweepers will come the following day.

“We moved the sweeping section from the streets department to the stormwater department, but we didn’t change the schedule,” explains Chumley. “It’s convenient for us to follow the garbage collection. We can pick up trash that falls off of the trucks, and residents have any easy way to remember our schedule.”

As for the downtown route, “we hit it every Friday morning,” says Chumley. “The city of Lafayette has a lot going on, on the weekends, such as the Taste of Tippecanoe Street Festival. We’ll come in at the end of Sunday morning, or when the event ends, to sweep up the trash that’s left.”

The Wabash River divides Lafayette from the city of West Lafayette. The downtown area of Lafayette is right on the river. Sweeping this area regularly helps protect the water quality of the river.

The downtown sweeper starts its route at 6:00 a.m. Chumley says that his crew is “conscious of noise. We have lots of apartments downtown, so we don’t want to wake up the residents.”

Three or four times a year, a sweeper cleans I-52 and other major four-lane traffic thoroughfares. That work is done at night, to avoid heavy traffic during the day.

Educating the public about the importance of street sweeping is an ongoing effort. A new video on street sweeping was recently posted on the city’s website.

“We’ve just started using social media,” says Chumley. To help residents understand just how effective the street sweeping was last year, the department figured out some comparisons that would be easy to understand and visualize: The 2,200 tons of debris swept off of Lafayette’s streets is the equivalent of 379 African bush elephants; 179 school buses full of students; 762 million ping pong balls (if laid out, they would reach from the US to Australia and back); 30 737 airplanes; 3.4 million pairs of shoes; or 3.6 million basketballs.

Lafayette has improved the way debris is handled. “In the past, street sweepers would dump it at the city dump. Now we have a dump station with two 20-yard dumpsters. They’re hauled off and emptied at the landfill at the wastewater plant at the edge of town, where the debris is properly treated,” explains Chumley.

Each sweeper normally dumps the debris it has collected into the dump station two to four times per day. Sometimes a sweeper will be dumped even if it is not full, so that the driver starts the next day with a completely clean sweeper.

“We have four permanent sweeper guys. Each has been here 10 years or more,” says Chumley. “Another 10 guys in the stormwater division can fill in for them. We try to promote cross-training.”

The sweepers the crewmembers rely on are made by Tymco Inc. of Waco, TX. The city of Lafayette owns three Model 435 and one Model 600 sweepers. All of the sweepers are regenerative air.

“The Model 600 is more ideal for thoroughfares, such as I-52. It can hold more debris, and it has a little more suction,” says Chumley. “We’ll look at going with another 600 down the road.”

Chumley added backup cameras to the Model 435s so the drivers can see any people or obstacles behind them. “We had automatic dumper doors added that adjust for the flow of debris. The equalizing air pressure means that debris doesn’t blow back up. A magnet on the front can be lowered to pick up metal debris.”

In an older historic neighborhood of Lafayette, permeable paving replaced old brick on North Street about two years ago. The section is about eight city blocks long.

“We keep a close eye on this street. We use only salt when we treat it in winter because sand plugs up the joints and requires maintenance more often. We budgeted for a vac head to attach to one of our [sewer line and catch basin cleaning] combination trucks,” says Chumley.

To clean the permeable paving, crewmembers “adjust the water pressure to blow out the sand and sediment. Then it’s vacuumed out,” he explains.

Some 15 years ago, catch basins in Lafayette were cleaned, on average, at least once in a three- to three-and-a-half-year cycle. “Now, with the growth we’ve had, it takes about five years to complete the cycle,” says Chumley.

To clean its catch basins and sewer lines the city uses its three Vactor 2100 sewer cleaners made by Vactor Manufacturing of Streator, IL, a subsidiary of Federal Signal Corp. “The service we’ve had with this company is great,” declares Chumley.

Cleaning Up on Long Island
In Lake Grove, NY, on Long Island, the streets are swept “twice a year, spring and fall. The main roads are swept pretty often, but we have a lot of back roads,” says Danny Capuano, crew leader for the village’s Department of Public Works.

Lake Grove is close to the center of Long Island, about 60 miles from its easternmost point at Montauk. The village has a crew of 10 who are responsible for street sweeping, snow removal, and other similar work. Street sweeping lasts from the end of March to late October or early November.

Credit: Stewart-Amos
Starfire S-4 sweeper

Capuano and his crewmembers use two sweepers. One is a 1992 model, made by a company that is no longer in business. “It’s still a good sweeper,” he says.

The second sweeper, recently purchased, is a Starfire S-4, manufactured by the Stewart-Amos Sweeper Company of Harrisburg, PA. Like all of the mechanical broom sweepers by Stewart-Amos, this model has the third elevator shaft design that improves chain function and reduces maintenance.

The Starfire S-4 has a 10-foot sweeping path, a 4-cubic-yard hopper, and a dump height that can extend up to 10 feet. It’s a sweeper that can almost turn on the proverbial dime, but has good stability.

That maneuverability is one of the features Capuano likes about this sweeper. “It’s smaller. We have a lot of cul-de-sacs and tight areas.”

He also appreciates the sweeper’s simplicity. “It’s not complex for repairs or for maintenance. I know what’s involved in making this vehicle work and run.”

Having two sweepers makes it easier for the crew to make the residents of Lake Grove happy, because their streets are cleaned sooner. “With two sweepers we can cover more area. With just one sweeper we got calls from people who wanted to know why one side of the village was cleaner than the other side,” notes Capuano.

Lake Grove has only a few streets with hills, but it has lots of trees, primarily maples and oaks. One section has walnut trees, which drop hard-shelled green balls of nuts in the fall. The village’s streets are of regular asphalt, none with permeable paving.

Capuano hasn’t made any changes in street sweeping routes for the village. He says that more roads are being added, though, which will mean a heavier workload for his crew. When the village began sweeping its streets, it first brought in hired sweepers, but later decided to have village employees do the sweeping.

Reflecting on the street sweeping operation, Capuano says, “We probably do at least a month and a half [timewise] for each sweeper. That’s with both sweepers going Monday through Friday. It depends on how much sand we put down during the winter.”

A Small City on a Lake
Waconia, MN, is located about 35 miles southwest of Minneapolis. The small city (population about 11,000) is situated by Lake Waconia, the third-largest lake in the Minneapolis region.

Keeping water quality good in Lake Waconia is a priority of the city’s Public Services Department, which includes the divisions of Parks, Stormwater, and Streets. Street sweeping plays a large role in the effort.

“Some receiving streams have maximum TMDLs that we have to meet. One watershed is already impaired with phosphorus. The area is growing, so it’s a big challenge that requires an added response,” says Craig Eldred, Waconia’s public services director.

“We’re working to prevent impact from phosphorus. Sweeping is one of our key components to get ahead of being regulated,” explains Eldred.

“We try to sweep each street, on the average, four times a year. We have designated routes,” he explains. “We targeted water-quality areas for sweeping. Watershed areas are done more frequently than residential areas.”

Eldred says his crewmembers have about 56 linear miles of streets to sweep. “We go all out with sweeping starting in mid-March, and we continue sweeping until the first snowfall, which is usually in late November.”

In the cold Minnesota climate, a waterless street sweeper offers a big advantage. “We can be out in colder weather,” notes Eldred.

Operating in below-freezing temperatures permits the Waconia crew to sweep up road salt or sand whenever the snow isn’t too deep. Sweeping even a few times in winter means there isn’t such a buildup of debris that spring rains can send into the lake.

“We sweep up large parking lots of local businesses, too, so sand doesn’t get into the sewer system. We charge a slight fee for this service. With the waterless sweeper, we can come in early March.

Waconia’s waterless sweeper is a Pelican, manufactured by Elgin Sweeper, a division of Federal Signal Corp. of Elgin, IL.

Eldred is pleased with how the Pelican operates. “It has the capability of picking up heavier debris. I looked at it back in 2007. I always thought it would be a great tool to have in our arsenal for stormwater [quality].”

Credit: Loveland, CO
Crews have nicknamed Loveland’s Schwarze A-8 Twister The Ninja Turtle.

The Pelican waterless sweeper keeps streets clean not only in Waconia, but also in Norwood Young America, MN. Cooperation between the two cities allows each of them to have a new sweeper to use.

“We partnered with a neighboring community. We’re the lead agency, but we share a six-year lease. We’re the larger city, so usage is about 60/40, more time for us,” explains Eldred.

To improve cost effectiveness, “we put an automatic vehicle location device on it to monitor how many hours it runs, what each community’s use is. We’ll have good data on cause and effect [for pollution levels and return on investment],” he adds.

Choosing a six-year lease period instead of a longer time offers the two communities another advantage. “We’ll keep up to date on new sweeper technology and be using it sooner on our next sweeper,” says Eldred.

An advantage of the Pelican is that it controls dust without the use of water. That task is accomplished through a dust skirting system, dust separator in the hopper, and a dust control fan with a maintenance-free filter.

Two crewmembers are designated to drive the sweeper. The department also has an older regenerative-air sweeper than six members are trained to use.

With the consistent goal of preserving and improving water quality in Lake Waconia, Eldred finds monitoring essential. “We use a tool to measure our reduction [of debris in runoff] that was developed by the University of Minnesota. A community where I used to work partnered with the university on it.”

The monitoring tool “measures our removal of phosphorus. That is a help to us in meeting our MS4 permit, too,” he adds.

Permeable pavement by PaveDrain was recently installed in a few areas of Waconia. “We’re aware of some possible complications [with sweeping]. We’re going to establish some measurable items on it to see how much work we have to do,” says Eldred.

Waconia has about 2,500 catch basins. They get cleaned from mid-March through mid-November.

“We do a lot of inspection for BMPs. We do a lot of vacuuming in the fall because leaves go into them. We have a pretty extensive program of maintenance for the system, so it works appropriately,” says Eldred.

Downtown and residential areas near Lake Waconia, where the tree cover goes right to the lake, are cleaned every year. The trees in these areas include maple and ash, which have lots of large leaves. Catch basins in other sections of Waconia are cleaned less often.

The Waconia crewmembers use an AllJetVac combination jet spray and vacuum truck to clean the sewer lines and catch basins. Vacall Industries of New Philadelphia, OH, is the manufacturer.

Reflecting on his department’s work, Eldred says, “It’s how you handle the monitoring and measuring and having the right equipment to decrease pollution.” And even though Waconia has completed several major stormwater pond improvements, he says, “It’s cheaper to do sweeping than to get sediment out of stormwater ponds.”

He adds, “We get pretty positive response about how we keep the streets clean and also help meet some of our MS4 requirements.”

Public education reinforces the positive response. “In April we have a Water Forum, combined with the watershed organizations. We’ll give an update of Lake Waconia and what we’re doing to protect the lake. We’ll have the sweeper there, a new tool for the public to see.”

His department also holds an open house for the public during APWA Public Works Week. “We do a lot of education on stormwater and work with the schools. We take the sweeper. Kids love climbing on it.”

The department has found another effective way to increase public knowledge about its work. “We’ve created some private-public partnerships to protect the lake,” says Eldred.

Riding the Turtle
In Loveland, CO, only a few people get to ride in The Ninja Turtle, which is part of the city’s fleet of street sweepers. The Ninja Turtle’s privileged drivers are members of Loveland’s street sweeping crew.

The Ninja Turtle is actually a regenerative-air sweeper made by the Schwarze Industries of Huntsville, AL. Like all Schwarze regenerative-air sweepers, it can pick up particles as small as 10 micrometers or less (PM10).

The sweeper got its nickname because “it goes slowly [three miles per hour when it is sweeping] and it’s green,” explains Terry Cook, interim superintendent for streets and stormwater maintenance in Loveland.

His department “went with green because it stands out, and it represents recycling and that we’re trying to be responsible stewards of the environment,” he adds.

On one street sweeping route that consists of main arterials and thoroughfares, the city uses The Ninja Turtle, which is an A-8 Twister model. “It is awesome in leaf season,” says Cook. “The air sweeper’s advantage [over a mechanical sweeper] is greater suction power.”

In these areas that have many large, older cottonwoods, maples, and other types of trees dropping their big leaves, “the air sweeper has a definite advantage. It does twice the work of a mechanical sweeper,” he adds.

The A-8 Twister model has a 6-cubic-yard stainless steel hopper. Its dump height can be adjusted from 2 to 12 feet.

In Loveland the solid waste crews pick up homeowners’ leaves and other types of yard waste at the curbsides. All of that organic material is recycled. Last year the street sweepers collected more than 1,900 cubic yards of leaves. The leaves were diverted from the landfill to the recycling center.

The street sweeping crew consists of a supervisor, a lead operator, and four equipment operators who drive the sweepers. Three of them run the department’s mechanical sweepers on residential routes. The fourth operator drives the regenerative-air Turtle on the main arterials route.

Loveland’s street sweeping season lasts from April to November. The four sweepers run for four 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday. Each residential route driver can complete his entire loop every two weeks.

“Our sweeper schedule is a day behind the trash collection schedule. Trash bins are put away by the time we come through. People know their trash days, so they know when we’re coming,” says Cook.

The three residential route sweepers run from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The main arterials and downtown sweeper operates from 4:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Loveland’s street sweeping crewmembers are responsible for cleaning 798 curb miles of streets. Their goal is to clean each mile 12 times a year, for a total of 9,576 curb miles cleaned.

Cook says his crews don’t face a lot of hilly streets or other geographic challenges that would make the job more difficult. However, they do have to cope with lots of cul-de-sac streets in residential neighborhoods and parked cars that residents forget to move.

Loveland hasn’t made any significant changes to its street sweeping operation in several years. The city has grown, though, so Cook says the department will make “some minor adjustments to residential routes.”

In the future he would like to add another regenerative-air sweeper to the city’s fleet. With two regenerative-air and two mechanical sweepers (and one for backup), Cook feels the department “would have the best of both worlds.”

Catch basins in Loveland are cleaned from April to November. In one older neighborhood, the infrastructure includes drainpipes that are undersized to handle stormwater runoff, by current standards. This area is considered priority one and is cleaned more frequently.

Other sections of Loveland are rated as priority two or priority three for frequency of cleaning. “New developments that have upgraded pipes don’t require as much maintenance,” says Cook.

“Most of our infrastructure drains to nearby rivers and creeks. We monitor 54 water-quality vaults and do maintenance on them four times a year,” he says.

To clean the storm sewer lines and catch basins, the crewmembers rely on a combination spray vac truck. Painted yellow, the truck is nicknamed Big Bird. It was manufactured by Vac-Con Inc. of Green Cove Springs, FL, a subsidiary of Holden Industries.

Cook especially likes the camera that allows the crew members to check the storm sewer lines for obstructions or conditions of the pipes. “It’s a nice tool when they’re jetting the lines,” he says. Crewmembers can spot problems “without having to dig up the ground.”

He says that the response his department receives from Loveland residents “is pretty positive. We get a lot of compliments, especially when we’re cleaning in front of a house.”

About the Author

Margaret Buranen

Margaret Buranen writes on the environment and business.