Nowadays, cleaning roads is not just done by the mere use of brooms. Air pollutants such toxic inhalable particulate matter which accumulate on roads have made this task harmful to do. This is why in the Greater Toronto Area, road brushing vehicles are used instead.
The importance of using road flushing and sweeping vehicles has been emphasized by a major city in Ontario. This was after a series of machinery and cleaning method testing was done. The test, which was held over a period of days, determined the best road cleaning practice that should be enforced in the city and in GTA municipalities.
The Process of Cleaning Roads
Before the study was made, road flushing was already done in several cities in Ontario. Initially, the streets were washed (not just sprayed) with a considerable amount of water to make inhalable particles or dust heavy. This way, dust control and disturbance in the vicinity will not be a problem once brushing vehicles made their pass.
After the study however, road flushing was determined to be one of the cleaning practices that should be used less. Instead, regenerative air sweepers were recommended for use.
Regenerative road brushing vehicles used air instead of water to loosen dirt and debris on the ground. A high velocity air which had a knifing effect was released on the concrete. Compared to water, this was more effective in removing leaves and dirt located in between cracks. This however, was sometimes not enough to remove packed down dirt; so water was still used. But water was used in small quantities only and not flushed on the road.
To resolve the dust disturbance problem, regenerative air road cleaning vehicles used curtains or mounted rubber flaps to contain dust under the scope of the vehicle.
Effects to the Environment and Ambient Air
Road flushing actually reduced a large percentage of inhalable particulate matter in the air. However, it did not have a high overall environmental performance. Water is a natural resource and was used greatly in this cleaning method. Thus, this method resulted to overuse of a natural resource.
Another disadvantage that this method had was it contributed to the high level of pollutants in rain water runoff. Sewers were a lot more polluted when this method was still practiced. What happens was that road flushing caused dirt and debris to be washed out into sewers. There, they can spread bacteria and toxins which later on will be transferred to lakes and rivers.
Pollution in lakes and rivers caused by water runoff was greatly monitored by sanitation sectors. Sewers and storm drains were filtered and cleaned before they were released into lakes and rivers. So if road flushing did not cause water pollution, they caused higher labor and sewer maintenance costs.
Despite these disadvantages, washing roads with water does have an advantage. It helps in controlling road dust during extremely dry weather conditions. Even the latest technologies such as regenerative air systems find it hard to control dust during these types of weather.
Road flushing has been used for a while now and it had proved to be an effective method in reducing particulate matter in the air. However, after an extensive cleaning method testing, it became one of the methods advised to be used less. Its overall environmental performance compared to using the latest technology was very low. And, it raised water conservation concerns.
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