Street Sprinkling
Although many cities sprinkle their streets for dust laying only, it is agreed by all experts and the heads of most street cleaning departments that the use of sprinkling carts for this purpose is of no value, i. e. it is a temporary makeshift and the result is nil. Sprinkling alone does not clean pavements, but only converts temporarily the fine dust into mud, which is a nuisance. It is quite generally agreed, too, that sprinkling is responsible for much repair work on pavements.
The number of times a street is sprinkled daily depends upon weather conditions, nature of pavement and location, and rarely exceeds four trips. Where flushing and squeegeeing are done sprinkling is eliminated entirely.
In Providence, Rhode Island, bituminous pavements are not sprinkled by water. They are kept clean by patrol system and reasonably free from dust. It is the belief of officials of that city that the use of water has an injurious effect on the pavement.
George D. Warren, of Boston, an expert on paving, says that street sprinkling as it is generally practised is worse than a useless expense. He points to the fact that there has been no sprinkling in Providence in seven years on all kinds of pavement, except that water bound pavement is occasionally sprinkled with oil or oil emulsion. If bituminous pavement surfaces are dry and clean the oil which drips from automobiles is quickly spread by auto tires to an extremely thin sheet, which not only preserves the pavement, but the slight amount of oil takes up the fine dust and materially helps to prevent the surface from even becoming dusty.
Mr. Warren believes that while some forms of pavement are doubtless more affected by water and mud than others, sprinkling injuriously affects all classes of pavement. Continuing he says: “I believe that repairs required to all classes of pavement are more generally the result of wetting down the dirt, leaving the surface in a more or less muddy condition than by traffic, or rather what would be traffic under dry cleaning conditions. A city or street in or on which sprinkling or other methods of continual wetting of pavement surface has not been practised is almost usually one where the pavements are the best of their kind. Washington has the enviable reputation of having the most durable pavement of all kinds. For many years the system of cleaning there has been hand patrol without sprinkling, except a very light sprinkling, just enough to lay the dust, not to convert it into mud—immediately in advance of night sweeping.
“Fifth Avenue, New York, is always dry except during rains, and we find one of the most durable asphalt pavements in the world. The pavement is always clean and never dusty.
“Asphalt pavement on Alexander Street, Rochester, New York, laid in 1885, is still in existence and has a record for low cost of repairs, and has until quite recently been free from street sprinkling. It is now rapidly deteriorating.
“Rutger Street, in Utica, New York, laid in 1886, has been through a similar experience of no sprinkling. Michigan Boulevard in Chicago, from Jackson Boulevard to 10th Street, was paved partly with creosoted wood block and partly with asphalt. It was always in a dry condition and carried very heavy traffic for ten years and was in a good condition until about four years ago when it was removed on account of widening the street. The bituminous pavement on Michigan Boulevard is always clean and never cleaned or sprinkled other than by patrol cleaning, except as to narrow strips about four feet wide which are sprinkled and hand broomed at night to remove the slight dust which collects near the curb.”
The Bureau of Municipal Research of Milwaukee reports that in that city 298 miles of street are sprinkled at a cost of $60,310.05. Of this amount $55,104.77 is assessable.
The balance is the city’s portion for public property and street and alley sections which is charged to the general city fund. The city used 275,498,112 gallons of water, costing $28,416.65 including $8,800 for hydrant rental. The average rate of assessment per foot front is about .017¢. In some cities where water is unavailable outside of city limits, or available only for a short time, oil has been used to meet the demands for dust prevention. What seems to be the best is some non-volatile oil that will quickly penetrate the wearing surface of the road incorporating itself with the fine particles so that it forms a dense, smooth, waterproof coating, or else renders the surface dressing so heavy that wind will not hold it in suspension in the air. In addition to this its non-volatile character gives it lasting qualities.
The Milwaukee Bureau of Municipal Research believes that “The service at its best is of no value as it does not clean but only allays dust on the street where in its wet condition it requires a further process of cleaning by the squeegee or flusher and White Wings. If the city had a sufficient amount of modern equipment to clean streets more frequently, the valueless method of sprinkling could be eliminated and an enormous expense saved.”
In some cities street railway companies are required to sprinkle between their tracks and for certain distances on either side of the track. The legal question has several times arisen, whether a Municipal corporation has authority to enact an ordinance to compel railway companies to sprinkle in this way and also whether the particular ordinance in question is reasonable, or so unreasonable as to be void. Generally speaking it has been decided that such an ordinance must be specific, not burdensome, and confined to the company’s tracks, though in one case in Massachusetts, under the statutory powers conferred upon municipal authority, an ordinance requiring sprinkling from curb to curb was sustained. Courts have held that an ordinance providing that “each and every Company or Corporation operating street car lines within the limits of the city of ——— shall water their tracks so as to effectually keep the dust on the same laid,” and provides a penalty for its violation, is neither indefinite nor wanting in uniformity.
The question of sprinkling streets before sweeping has been discussed repeatedly. Following are the methods used in some cities:
New York.—Sprinkling before machines. No sprinkling before hand sweeping.
Chicago.—Sprinkling before sweeping. The Chicago Code of 1911 requires that street car companies shall keep well sprinkled with water in a manner satisfactory to the Commissioner of Public Works, all streets on which they maintain and operate their tracks. They are required to sprinkle such streets twice each day. By another section such street car companies shall clean such portions of streets as lie between the two outermost rails of such tracks and also every additional service as may be prescribed in any railway ordinance relating to or affecting any street.
Philadelphia.—The proposals and specifications for the cleaning of streets, roads, alleys, inlets and markets for 1915, contained the following provision: In addition to the cleaning by blockmen required under these specifications, all streets must be periodically cleaned by machines, the number of weekly cleanings being given in the classification of streets, the remaining machine work shall be done with machine brooms immediately preceded by sprinklers.
St. Louis.—Sprinkling before sweeping is very rarely done, except in the case of certain large sweeping machines used by the city.
Baltimore.—Sprinkles before sweeping.
Pittsburgh.—Principal thoroughfares including all streets in business district cleaned by machine sweepers. Water cart precedes sweeping machine. The cart must never be more than one block ahead of the sweeper.
Washington.—Superintendent of street cleaning gives his opinion that much more effective sweeping can be done without sprinkling and in hand patrol work where dirt is not allowed to collect in any considerable quantity is not necessary. In machine sweeping, however, he finds it necessary to sprinkle with a small amount of water. In cold weather sprinkling is omitted; but at such times many complaints are received on account of dust.
Minneapolis.—In general the orders of the street district commissioners are to sprinkle the streets before sweeping.