Title
Resolution to Approve the Purchase of an Elgin Street Sweeper from Bell Equipment Company (State of Michigan $273,300.00)
Memorandum
The attached resolution authorizes the purchase of a 2011 Elgin Waterless Pelican series street sweeper powered by a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engine, for the total amount of $273,300.00, from Bell Equipment Company, Lake Orion, Michigan. This unit will replace a 2001 street sweeper currently used by the Public Services Area, Field Operations Unit.
The sweeper being replaced has been in service ten years and has 5,960 hours of use. Over the last two year, this unit has been taken to Fleet Service for maintenance and repairs 87 times of which 33% have been for breakdowns. The total cost of all repairs over the same time frame have exceeded $113,250.00 Not only are the repairs costly but the excessive down time is crucial as there are no backup or spare sweepers in the fleet.
The Field Operations Unit currently operates a fleet of five mechanical (Pelican series) street sweepers and one vacuum street sweeper. The five Pelicans are used to pick up the larger items and the majority of small debris. The vacuum is used as a second or “finishing” sweeper to pick up the small debris that the mechanical sweepers cannot pick up.
Four of our mechanical sweepers and the vacuum sweeper require that water be sprayed on the roadway to get the dust down during the sweeping operation. This makes the smallest debris or “fines” heavier and harder for the mechanical sweeper to pick up. The most recent street sweeper we purchased and the unit proposed in this resolution are waterless sweepers. This type of sweeper has skirting that completely surrounds the bottom of the unit to contain the dust, which is then pulled through a high capacity air filter by two fans. By bringing the fines into the air and drawing them into the filter, this unit collects the fines in an amount equal to the efficiency of the vacuum sweeper. An important a...
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