If James Bond drove a street sweeper (Maine public works teams go high tech)

Trevor Maxwell, former longtime Portland Press Herald staffer and current media consultant, certainly hasn’t lost his ability to write. Instead of trying to outdo the introduction he put atop his latest press release on behalf of the Maine Chapter of the American Public Works Association, I’ll just let him start this thing off:

Bridges made from recycled plastic. Computerized groundspeed control units for salt and sand spreading. Regenerative air street sweepers to keep pollutants out of water supplies. These aren’t your grandfather’s public works departments.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. So the events coming up are in celebration of National Public Works Week, May 20 through 26. In Auburn, Scarborough and Kittery, municipal public works teams will be holding events at which kids can climb all over the big department trucks, play games and benefit from giveaways.

Some details, ripped directly from Trevor’s announcement:

  • On Friday, May 18, public work crews from Lewiston, Auburn, Sabattus, Lisbon and Greene, will host an event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the parking lot of the Auburn Mall.
  • On Saturday, May 19, Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, Gorham, Portland, Scarborough, South Portland, Standish, Windham and Yarmouth will host an event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside the Cabela’s store in Scarborough.
  • On Friday, May 25, Kittery, York, Eliot, Wells, South Berwick will host an event at the Kittery Trading Post, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The York County Snowplow Roadeo also will be held on this day, beginning at 8 a.m. at the same location.

Elsewhere in the state, public works staffs are holding open houses or sending workers into schools to give presentations during the big week. The idea is to educate the public about what public works departments do and the new technologies they employ in doing it.

Again, from Trevor’s report:

Each event also features displays and demonstrations about public works projects. Technology is a major theme this year. For example, the City of South Portland recently purchased a regenerative air street sweeper. Polluted run-off from lawns, asphalt and other surfaces is the number one problem for water quality. Instead of simply pushing the sediment out of the way, regenerative air sweepers trap pollutants before they enter the water cycle.

Another example of a technological advance happened last year in York, where the public works department installed a thermoplastic bridge on Birch Hill Road. Engineers needed a structure that was durable enough to stand up to repeated flooding. The bridge, made from recycled plastic bottles, is believed to be the first of its kind in North America. Now that the old concrete culvert has been removed, the natural streambed has been restored, providing for an easier passage for fish that run between the sea and Shorey’s Pond.

So there you have it. Mark your calendar and go climb on a dump truck!

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.