Thanks in part to an influx of federal money, the borough’s sanitation department staff will soon be saved the treacherous task of hauling trash bales up and down a slippery, frozen ramp.
The borough assembly accepted the terms of a $250,000 grant from the Denali Commission at its meeting Jan. 10, which will partially fund the borough’s solid waste transfer station loading dock project. This project aims to improve the safety and efficiency of the community’s trash disposal processes.
Since installing solid waste baler equipment in November 2021, the sanitation department has dealt with serious safety and efficiency challenges as it consolidates and ships the island’s garbage.
After the team picks up the trash, they deposit it onto the floor next to the baler, a machine that compresses and cuts it into manageable bales. After potentially hazardous materials are removed from the trash pile, the garbage is baled and stored on the floor until enough has accumulated for a shipment.
Then, the sanitation team uses a forklift and ramp to load the trash into 40-foot-long shipping containers for transport by barge and then train to a landfill in eastern Washington. This is the most dangerous part of the current process, explained Public Works Director Tom Wetor.
“When we’re carrying up garbage bales, there are all kinds of juices and things that are coming off of those bales,” he said. “That built up onto the ramp and it became increasingly more slippery and difficult to keep clean.”
In the winter, the ramp accumulates a thin layer of ice and frozen liquid garbage “that has brought up some significant concerns with our staff safety … driving a forklift up and down that ramp,” Wetor added.
Installing a loading dock will address these safety concerns by eliminating the need for a ramp. It will also streamline the loading process, which is inefficient under the current system. “It’s how it’s done most other places,” he said. “Petersburg, they have three loading docks. We don’t even have one.”
Additionally, the project will make the solid waste facility cleaner. Without a loading dock, “you’ve got basically 30 tons of garbage sitting on the floor,” said Wetor.
The roughly half-a-million dollar project will require $391,499 in borough funds along with the $250,000 Denali Commission grant. Wetor was initially surprised by the high price tag, but from an engineering perspective, he explained, the cost makes sense. The trash processing building is pre-engineered, so making modifications to it will be uniquely difficult. The price of concrete is also high right now and the project will require concrete work. “It looks like a big price tag for a loading dock and it is,” said Wetor. “But there’s a reason for that.”
The Denali Commission is a federal agency that provides utilities, infrastructure and economic support to Alaska communities. The borough was notified about the project funding in August 2022, but required assembly approval to accept the funds and approve the terms of the grant agreement.
By accepting the commission’s money, the borough has committed to complete the project between Jan. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, unless an extension is required.
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