City of Ketchikan Wins Bobcat A300
When Bob Sivertsen first saw the entry form for the “Moving Mountains” contest sponsored by Bobcat Company and MSW Management magazine, he knew the least he could do was give it a shot.As the solid waste supervisor for the City of Ketchikan, Sivertsen has learned that it takes innovativeness to successfully run a solid waste and recycling transfer station and inert landfill on an island in Southeast Alaska. Though there is no road access to mainland, Sivertsen has made it his mission to stay connected and on the leading edge of the solid waste and recycling industry. Sivertsen says MSW Management magazine allows a person like him, who's located in a remote area, to see what other facilities around the nation are doing. "We don’t want to re-invent the wheel, so we look to publications to give us ideas of what might work here in Alaska," he says.
And while flipping through an issue of the magazine one day, Sivertsen came across the contest to win a Bobcat® A300 all-wheel steer loader. Thinking he’d have just as good of odds as any other solid waste and recycling facility, Sivertsen headed online and registered for the contest. Luckily, he did because his facility was recently announced as the winner of the contest. The City of Ketchikan took possession of the brand new Bobcat A300 all-wheel steer loader in June.
"So far, the A300 has lived up to all our expectations, and the public just loves the fact that we won it," Sivertsen says.
The Need for All-Wheel Steer
The City of Ketchikan services a community of 14,000 residents with a solid waste and recycling transfer station and inert landfill. Sivertsen says he and his crew work six days a week and require versatile equipment that can perform numerous tasks. Due to the facility's remote location, reliability is also a major consideration when choosing equipment. "When we have to order parts, they have to be flown or barged to us, so downtime can really put a dent in operations," he says.
For years, the city has owned a Bobcat 773 skid-steer loader that is used by the Solid Waste Division, the Pubic Works Street Department, and other city departments on an as-needed basis. The main reason it can be utilized by so many different departments is because of its attachments. The city owns a bucket, combination bucket, pallet fork, angle broom, sweeper, planer, vibratory roller and angle blade attachment. "The skid-steer loader is an amazing machine that, with the right attachment, can do a variety of jobs," Sivertsen says.
But the idea of an all-wheel steer loader impressed Sivertsen right away. Because machines used at the facility constantly travel across concrete tipping floors and asphalt, Sivertsen figured a machine with all-wheel steering would drive much smoother than a conventional skid-steer loader. He also knew the machine's all-wheel steering mode would be gentle on the tires. Like many industrial facilities, Sivertsen equips his loaders with solid tires to prevent costly repairs and premature tire replacement resulting from tires skidding on hard surfaces in the transfer station and in the yard.
The beauty of the city’s new Bobcat A300 all-wheel steer loader is that it provides operators two machines in one. With the flip of a switch inside the cab, operators can change from skid-steer mode to all-wheel steer mode. In all-wheel steer mode, all four axles steer, which results in reduced tire wear on hard surfaces. "The new all-wheel steer machine will dramatically reduce the wear factor and save money by improving the lifecycle of the tires,” Sivertsen says. "The real nice thing is with the push of a button I can change from all-wheel steer to skid steer, and we like that."
At the solid waste and recycling facility, Sivertsen says the city plans to use the A300 and its 3,000-pound rated operating capacity for transferring baled white goods to trailers for shipping. In the past, workers have used larger loaders and 6,000-pound fork trucks. The vertical-lift-path A300 features a 10.9-foot lift height, making it easy for operators to dump materials into trailers. Sivertsen says he also likes the machine’s SmartFan cooling system because of its quietness when working indoors and efficient cooling.
Another task of the Bobcat A300 will be to move drums in and out of the facility's hazardous waste area. "The smooth steering will be an added plus when moving drums of hazardous materials within tight places," he says. And during the winter, Sivertsen says the loader's four turning wheels will provide safer transportation on slick asphalt. It also will be seen plowing snow from the city's parking lots and hard-to-access areas. "We have an active port facility and there are times when it needs to be swept or cleared of snow, and the A300 can access those areas better than any other equipment the city owns," Sivertsen says.
In addition, the City of Ketchikan’s Street Department plans to attach a planer to the Bobcat A300 to grind asphalt and concrete road surfaces for resurfacing projects. For operating hydraulic attachments, the A300 has a standard 20.7 gpm of auxiliary hydraulic flow, or it can be equipped with an optional 37 gpm of high-flow hydraulics for attachments that require more power.
Relying on Reliable Equipment
At the landfill, its three operators and two scale house employees bale out petrucible waste and load it into 40-foot closed containers, which are then shipped by barge to Washington state. Once they arrive at the dock, they are unloaded, placed on railcars and transported to Roosevelt Landfill in eastern Washington. There, they are unloaded and the empty containers are shipped back to Alaska. "Our waste gets some serious miles on it before it finds its final resting place," Sivertsen says. "For us, it is the best option for waste disposal. Ketchikan receives about 150 to 180 inches of rain each year, so things are pretty wet most of the time. It's hard to maintain a complying facility with that much moisture."
Sivertsen will be the first to admit that his solid waste and recycling facility places heavy demands on the machinery, which is why it needs to be so reliable. If a baler happens to go down, he says the waste doesn't stop coming through the door. If this happens, he says they call on the Bobcat A300 to load the containers and keep the operation going.
The city’s solid waste and recycling facility is nestled in a beautiful setting surrounded by tall trees and majestic mountains. It's perched on a plateau above town overlooking Tongass Narrows and the inland waterways. Sivertsen, who was born and raised in Ketchikan, respects the environment and has led the way in finding methods to maintain it.
The facility recycles heavy metal scrap, baled paper products, beverage cans, e-waste and motor oils. It also has an active composting program where workers grind clean wood waste and mix it with lime stabilized sludge from the Wastewater Department. Sivertsen says their newest recycling project has entailed converting one of the facility’s diesel vehicles into burning straight vegetable oil. Sivertsen says he and the city’s Maintenance Department officials put their heads together to find a better use for the oils they were collecting. Fry oil is collected from restaurants, filtered, and then used to power their hook-lift recycling vehicle. Sivertsen says they’ve also converted one of the facility’s 20-ton excavators so it will run on vegetable oil.
In fact, to show off the Bobcat A300 all-wheel steer loader that they won, Sivertsen says they recently displayed it atop one of their vegetable oil-powered recycling trucks in the city’s annual Fourth of July parade.