Consider Options for Street Sweeping

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 would work independently, within the operation, supporting all sweepers. This would amount to the replacement of the work that was done with the second sweeper and results in an annual expense of $50,813.

3. Renting a sweeper and operating it with City Staff:  It became evident in our analysis that this option would not fare well since the rental rate based on a $40 hour week would amount to a capital cost alone of over $90 per hour compared to our capital and maintenance costs of approximately $45. 

It also became evident during our discussions with Contractors and others in the industry that this is a highly competitive service that is provided. The truck mounted sweeper was more expensive than the standard 3 wheel Elgin that was purchased in 2004 but would provide flexibility and increase efficiency during the off season. For those that are not aware, we utilize our sweeper to maintain the ice rinks in the winter and felt that the increased travel speeds would be beneficial to get to and from the rinks as well as making us more efficient in responding to an emergency where a sweeper may be useful. The top speed of a typical sweeper is 15 mph and the truck mounted sweeper can travel highway speeds thereby reducing our travel time to a scene.

9605- Storm Water Utility
General Fund
Equipment Revolving Fund

As you can see by the analysis, the difference in cost is minimal and relies on many assumptions for costs to perform this very valuable service. Our recommendation at this time is to go with Option 2 and not replace the 1984 Elgin sweeper, prepare a quote form for the 2012 season so that we can get some real costs for performing this service.

Motion to move forward with Option #2 thereby not replacing the 1984 Elgin and try Contracting out half of the annual street sweeping activity.