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This article was reproduced from the Government of Singapore's
Environmental E-zine at http://www.env.gov.sg
Mechanising pavement sweeping - the green machine way
Over the last few months, a little green "monster"
has been spotted along the pavements in Singapore. It is called
the Green Machine and is one of the latest technological solutions
to cleaning up litter. The Green Machine is a new-generation ride-on
pavement sweeper that allows speedy cleansing of litter from inaccessible
areas. A total of 61 machines have been deployed to cover the
whole of the central part of Singapore.
We have certainly come a long way in the resources
we employ to clean up Singapore’s litter. We are progressively
moving away from labour-intensive manual cleaning towards mechanisation
of public cleansing. Currently, about 69% of Singapore’s
cleansing workforce are above 50 years old. The physically demanding
work is increasingly difficult for the workers to undertake, and
not many young people are willing to take up the job. Anticipating
this labour shortage, The Ministry of the Environment (ENV) had
been promoting mechanisation and innovative environmental design
to reduce reliance on manual workers and facilitate mechanical
sweeping.
Mechanical sweeping of roads was first introduced
by ENV in the mid-seventies. The machines available then for pavement
sweeping were bulky and could only sweep up to 5 to 10 km of walkways
or pavements. With advances in technology, public cleansing has
become increasingly mechanised. The machines used today are now
smaller, more powerful and more versatile. They are able to clean
almost every nook and cranny once denied to their bulky predecessors.
To further increase productivity, ENV has also
embarked on a programme to contract out the mechanical sweeping
of roads and pavements in Singapore. Singapore is parcelled out
into three sectors, viz. Western, Central and Eastern. The four-year
contract for mechanical sweeping in Central Singapore was the
first to be tendered out in Nov 98. A total of six locally registered
companies submitted tenders and SEMAC Pte Ltd was awarded the
contract on 1 Apr 99.
Under the contract, SEMAC will have to sweep
about 1,450 km of pavements and 2,600 km of expressways and roads.
SEMAC will use a fleet of Green Machines to sweep the pavements
and a fleet of Johnston 600 mechanical sweepers to sweep the expressways
and roads.
Over the years, ENV has evaluated different public
cleansing equipment available in the market and introduced those
machines that were found suitable. There are some areas where
mechanised sweeping cannot be extended to because of factors such
as road design constraints; obstruction by street furniture such
as lamp posts and bus stops; underpasses with high steps; over-head
pedestrian bridges; and narrow pavements. ENV will continually
source for equipment to clean these areas which are inaccessible
to machines.
At the same time, we are also working with other
government authorities to look into future design of public roads
and infrastructure to make them more machine-friendly.
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