Assistant Chief, Kathy Harvey, Sweeps In as Guest Blogger!

I’m filling in for Ed this issue and thought I’d share my experience working on a sweeping crew in St. Louis.

The job was a few weeks ago on I-44 near downtown at night. Jerome Mitchell, assistant maintenance supervisor, was in charge of getting me where I needed to be and meeting up with the crew. 

As soon as he picked me up, he made sure I had all of the correct PPE for night work. I looked like a glow-in-the-dark skeleton, but I was definitely visible to the traffic and safety is more important than appearance.

Kevin was my driver and he did an amazing job of staying focused while answering my endless stream of questions. In the passenger seat that night, swerving around each and every grate next to the barrier wall, I wondered how I was going to keep from getting dizzy! Because the grates had not been raised when we resurfaced the roads, the person in the lead truck had to get out at each one and rake or shovel the trash, then sweep it far enough to the side that the sweeper could actually pick it up on the swerve he did around the grate, and since they are so close together, we rarely drove straight.

 We had two TMAs behind us and as I watched the traffic whiz by, I still wondered if anyone was paying attention to us.  I live outside of Jefferson City and the streets around there are empty after 9 p.m., so I was amazed at the amount of traffic on I-44 at midnight on a weeknight and shocked by the amount of trash along the barrier.  The crews can make the entire round of roads needing to be swept in about three weeks, but in that time – wow -- people throw out a lot of trash!!!    

Our crews do a fabulous job of sweeping the streets in St. Louis, and I appreciate the job they do during the hours they do it, and all with an upbeat can-do attitude.  The entire team that night was great to be with and I appreciated them letting me tag along for a few hours.