Agenda - Public Works Committee - 05/17/2011

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Public Works Committee 5. 4. Meeting Date: 05/17/2011 By: Grant Riemer, Engineering/Public Works Title: Consider Options for Street Sweeping Background: Street sweeping is an important part of our roadway maintenance. Sweeping impacts areas such as pedestrian and vehicle safety, storm water runoff and other environmental issues. Spring sweeping usually starts in late March or early April and continues into May. Sweeping this time of year is greatly impacted by weather and road conditions. Snow or rains are common; as is ice in the gutter line. During the strategic planning session, an item that was placed in the "parking lot" to discuss was the Contracting out of City services to decrease costs to the resident. The following is an analysis of our current sweeping operation as well as a list of options for the Public Works Committee to consider. Currently, sweeping is accomplished in-house with City staff and equipment and paid for with the Storm Drainage Utility fund. Presently we have two street sweepers, both are 3 wheel Elgin Pelican models (1984 and 2004). Because of the heavier amount of debris in the spring, both sweepers are generally used in tandem. The first sweeper does the gutter line picking up the majority of the material, with the second sweeper doing a clean up pass and intersections. In addition to the sweepers, we run a dump truck and a water truck with the sweeping crew. The driver alternates between hauling debris cleaned off the streets and supplying water to the sweepers, needed for dust control. Allied Blacktop currently sweeps another City with mileage similar to ours and they estimate that they would need 500 sweeper hours to completely sweep our City once. This, of course, depends on road conditions and type of roads they encounter. Intersections, cul-de-sacs and amount of debris and other conditions all factor into the number. In all of the following scenarios, the truck hauling and water supply will continue to be provided by the City. There is 300 hours in the spring, 100 hours in the summer and 300 hours in the fall that we sweep. Operator costs for sweeping activities must be done by a full time staff member instead of our seasonal staff and therefore maintain a consistent cost per hour of $30.88 ($ 23.22 x 1.33). Capital cost per hour is $25.29 ($8,850/350) or $18.75 ($6,500/350) depending on which sweeper we use. Operating expenses including gas, oil changes, brushes, insurance, tire replacement, and miscellaneous parts resulting in a per hour cost of $19.77. This leaves a total cost of $75.93 per hour for the new sweeper or $69.22 for the 2004 sweeper. Following is a list of options for street sweeping (see attached spreadsheet): 1. Continue to use City staff and equipment to perform street sweeping. If this option is preferred, then consideration should be given to replacing the 1984 Elgin. Staff has maintained it well and to this point has been able to find replacement parts, but they are becoming scarcer. A new replacement sweeper would range from $165,000.00-$177,000.00, depending on the make, model and options. At $177,000.00 spread over 20 years the cost of a new machine would be approximately $8,850/year. Total cost to complete spring and fall sweeping annually would be $50,804. 2. Supplement City staff and equipment with contracted sweepers. This type of operation is fairly common and used for spring and fall sweeping when debris is the heaviest. The contractor supplies street sweepers with operators and works alongside the city crew. It's also common for the city to provide the dump trucks and a water truck. The normal operation would include the City providing one dump truck per two sweepers and the water truck