MIDDLESBROUGH S MUNICIPAL MOTORS.
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Cleansing Difficulties in a Busy Teesside Town.
OME extremely interesting figures jillustrating the material saving effected by motors in a variety of municipal services, as compared with the performance of the duties by horse transport, in respect of the motor fleet operated by the Middlesbrough
poration were recently given to a representative of The C000rbereial Motor.
The cleansing of the town presents exceptional dithcblties, for it is the centre of the Teesside iron and steelproducing alma, and in consequence of the large deposits of dust from the blast furnaces the calls made upon the departments responsible are much greater and infinitely more exacting and arduous than i§ the case in the majority of provincial townships. Middlesbrough has, at the present time, a population of practically 150,000, and in the course of a year about 60,000 tolls of household and .dry refuse.haye to be collected. Diming the past few 'years the task of keeping the town in a clean state has been delegated to an increasing extent to motors.
The corporation has 12 vehicles in use and further additions to the fleet are expected in the future in order to meet the growing requirement§ of the area covered. The Middlesbrough authorities, unlike the majority of municipalities, do not favour a scheme of completely centralized control for its fleet, but rather that vehicles should be permanently attached to departments and engaged upon a specific duty. • To this end the fleet is divided for administration purposes into two sections. The sanitary department, therefore, has under. its direct control all •units employed exclusively upon scavenging work • —and constructed specifically for this teelc—end remaining vehicles are under the charge of the borough engineer's department.
The vehicles controlled by the sanitary department are six Ford dust vans, fitted with end-tipping-bodies, end an S. D. Freighter of 2. tons capacity. All of them are employed upon the collection of household and dry refuse. Each of the Fordg, is capable of carrying a 28-cwt. load and picks up five loads per day.
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The S. D. Freighter was specially built to meet the requirements of this municipality. Its wheelbase has been reduced to 6 ft. and the body has been made narrower than the standard 2tonner of this make, so as to enable the vehicle more, easily to negotiate narrow back alleys.
The general layout of Middlesbrough is such that a combination of horse and motor collection is the most economical. A careful study of costs and conditions over the past two years has proved that horse transport is cheape& for distances within a mile of the tips: Beyond that distance the saving effected by motors is more pronounced as the distance from the point of collection and the 'tips is increased, until in dealing with loads on the outskirts of the town, there is a saving of nearly 50 per cent. on the side of motors as compared with the cost when horse transport was employed for the task. The current cost per ten of refuse collected by motors works out at 5s., as against 7s per ton for 2S-cwt. horse-drawn carts. When horses were used on the outlying districts the cost was about 9s. 6d. per ton, so that motors have beeri responsible for a particularly striking " cut " in the cost of collection.
About 60,000 tons of refuse are collected each year in Middlesbrough. Of this quantity 80,000 tons are disposed of by barge and tipped into the sea; 10,000 tons are sent away by rail, and the remaining 20,000 tons are disposed of to farmers, being tipped on waste land in the surrounding countryside.
On the general haulage side five vehicles are employed, these being two A.E.C.s, two 3-ton Bristol chassis, which have been fitted with lorry bodies, and a Lacre L-type sweeper.
The borough engineer, Mr. S. F. Burgess, M.Inst.C.E., does not favour the combined sweeper and suction machine, and considers the Lacre infinitely more suitable for use under conditions existing in Middlesbrough. One of the greatekt advantages of the machine is its speed, which enables the
chief thoroughfares of the town to be thoroughly swept before the heavy traffic of -the average morning has commenced. In all, Middlesbrough has about 70 miles of main streets, and all the principal shopping streets are swept each morning. The remainder receive attention once or twice each week.
• The Lacre sweeper ,has been in service for about two and a half years, and was responsible for an immediate reduction in the cost of street sweeping upon being put into commission. It has effected a paving of .50 per cent, in the cost of carrying out the work, and, in addition, operates much more effi• ciently and much quicker than the horsedrawn rotary sweepers formerly used. Carefully compiled costs show that the Laere is costing 4.25d. per 1,000 sq. yds. swept, or Os. 3d. per mile of roadway of a standard width of 30 ft. dealt with, as compared with 6d. per 1,000 yds. and 9s. 8d. per mile by horses.
The appliance sweeps about 10 miles of roadway each day and works aPproximately-250' days per year, the, daily cost
of the .machine being £2 •2s. .
The following table shews the annual cost of Operation of the machine The other units employed by this department are used upon general haulage tasks and employed, in the main, for conveying materials to the sites of new road construction and repair jobs.