This week, the King County Road
Services Division will begin "grinding away" at a massive accumulation of
debris left behind by one of the worst winters seen in years. Instead of one
huge storm, it was a series of flooding, snow, ice and wind that packed an
accumulated wallop.
Picture 3,200 big dump trucks all lined up, headlights to tailgates. The
line would stretch for 17 miles – all the way from Seattle to Issaquah. Now,
picture those dump trucks filled with splintered tree limbs, broken branches,
and uprooted stumps. The combined load would be close to 40,000 cubic yards.
That is how much winter debris the Road division has stockpiled at four
locations around the county – Maple Valley, Carnation, North Bend, and Renton.
It will take approximately 80 hours to grind that debris into wood chips
that can be used for county construction projects, erosion control, and
landscaping. But, the task is too big for any of the equipment King County
owns. So, enter "HogZilla."
HogZilla is a hydraulic coupling tub grinder, weighing more than 60,000 lbs.
The grinder can chew big pieces of debris – even tree stumps – into tiny wood
chips in a short amount of time. It can process as much as 160 tons an hour.
"Our philosophy is to reuse materials as much as possible, and to save money
whenever we can," said Road Maintenance Superintendent Tony Ledbetter. "Our
other option would have been to pay a recycler to take the debris, and then pay
them again to buy it back in the form of wood chips."
Instead, the division is contracting to have a huge chipping machine visit
each of the four sites. The grinding will cost about $35,000. That is just a
fraction of the overall costs the 2003-2004 winter has inflicted on King
County. If you tally up the emergency response costs for three floods, two
windstorms and one snowstorm – followed up by repair projects yet to be
completed – then winter-related work will total about $3.4 million for the Road
Services Division alone.
