MONSTER TRUCKS are in the neighborhood!

MONSTER TRUCKS are in the neighborhood!    This one is an EVAC truck - a giant sucking machine.  PSE was using it to vacuum out 5 feet of soil to install new street light poles.  These toys cost $275,000. 

The City of Redmond has a number of them to vacuum debris from stormwater drains, catchments, and  vaults.  200 feet of stormwater piping can be cleaned at  time. Last winter, the roads had to be sanded and EVACS were busy sucking out sand and pebbles from the stormwater pipes. This winter they won't be as busy, because the city will be spraying a brine-sugar beet solution to de-ice, rather than sand.  Yes, sugar beets! So, expect to see some "blood" on the roads when they "sand"!  Sanding the roads was a problem last year because silty suspensions drained straight into the streams - past the catchments.  (As you know, street stormwater in Redmond drains into Bear Creek and the Sammamish River.)  Silt is not healthy for the salmon and stream habitat.  The brine-beet de-icer is more enviro-friendly - and less abrasive on our cars!  (picture of right is a PSE truck vacuuming light post holes.)  MONSTERS!   What do ya say?

-- photos and story by Bob Yoder