Street sweeping--remarkably ineffective

Today as I walked along Caromar Dr, a Bobcat passed right next to me as it swept the street in front of the Sequoia Commons II construction site.

Street sweeping is required as far from the site as necessary, and by the end of the work day.  It's one of the six erosion control methods most frequently used in Madison.

I could see the sweeping was remarkably ineffective--there were tracks of dried mud still on the street where it had just passed.  I fixed my eyes on one large, dried clod as the Bobcat passed right next to me--the clod was still there after the Bobcat passed over it.

A 1996  EPA study also found street sweeping to be the least effective of the three methods studied for keeping muddy tracks from construction off streets

Besides failing to remove mud where sweeping occurs, the method has other shortcomings:

• It creates dust, adding to air pollution
• It simply spreads the dirt more widely around the street
• Sweepers frequently miss the gutters--the most important area to sweep.  Any dirt there is washed directly to the lakes.

No contractor that relies on ineffective methods deserves a GREEN rating from this blog.

 I believe the City deserves the most responsibility for this failure, because they continue to rely on sweeping, rather than on more effective BMPs, such as tire washing at construction sites.

 

The Parking lot at Sequoia Commons, just minutes after having been swept by the Bobcat in the rear.