Street sweepers are back on the job downtown after spending three months in and out of the repair shop. Two of the city’s four street sweepers were damaged during Mardi Gras cleanup, when an abundance of beads, cups, trash and debris clogged their delicate brush systems.
“They are the brush type and they do not tolerate beads,” says Kerry Chauvin, who oversees maintenance for the city-parish. “This year with the parades they handled they didn’t fare too well. We had a couple that went into the shop. It was a long lead time into repair.”
Chauvin cannot say for sure why this year’s Mardi Gras debris took more of a toll on the cumbersome yet delicate street sweepers than the debris of prior Mardi Gras seasons. One possible explanation is that the sweepers are several years old and may have just reached a tipping point.
“They’re extremely high-maintenance items,” Chauvin says. “They break all the time.”
The city-parish is currently in the process of evaluating its fleet of four sweepers and trying to decide whether to replace some or all of the machines with more expensive, better-made brushless sweepers—like those used by the City of New Orleans to handle its massive post-parade cleanups. Each of those machines costs in excess of $300,000.
Chauvin says the department, one of several previously under the now-defunct Department of Public Works, is trying to confirm it has adequate funds in a vehicle-replacement account to replace the sweepers with the upgraded equipment. If so, he’s hoping to procure the new equipment some time this summer.
“We’d like to get them in here so we can start using them, train on them and be prepared for the next parade season that rolls around,” he says.
—Stephanie Riegel
