Norman — Operating beyond capacity and already five years past its life expectancy, the city-operated transfer station at Chautauqua Avenue and SH 9 is so overused that garbage — push into the innards of the building itself by years of compacting — is literally coming out of the steel walls of the facility.
City of Norman Utilities Director Ken Komiske said the facility, built around 1985, has a capacity of 250 tons of garbage per day.
“Every day we’re pushing over 300 tons through that place,” Komiske said. ”It really is our workhorse.”
Komiske said “you’re lucky to get 20 years” out of a transfer station.
The Norman City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to move forward on a new, $3.5 million transfer station set to be constructed just east of the old one. The new station will have twice the capacity, at 500 tons daily.
Finance Director Anthony Francisco said the new station won’t cause trash rates to go up, adding that financing conditions “are very favorable” for the city.
At times, the existing transfer station is so busy and congested that up to 15 percent of the city-owned sanitation trucks are forced to drive directly to the landfill — at Sooner Road and I-240 — and dump their loads, Komiske said.
“We’re hoping to significantly cut down on that,” he said of the sanitation trucks’ frequent runs to the landfill. “But you cannot store garbage, you have to have it out of there within 24 hours.”
Instead of just one scale — used to bill its customers based on the weight of their vehicles coming into and leaving the facility — Komiske said the new station will have two of them. He said the facility will reduce congestion, making the area safer for employees and customers alike.
Construction is set to begin in about a month and is expected to be finished inside a year.
Komiske said the new transfer station, which will use a “lift and load” method of collecting garbage and placing it in large trucks for transport to the landfill, has room for a small expansion if the need arises.
Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com
