Clean sweep: Huntsville moving forward to spruce up neighborhood streets

HUNTSVILLE – As the Rocket City grows, so do its government departments and the tools needed to keep them outfitted to meet growing demands.

At last week’s regular meeting of the Huntsville City Council, City Administrator John Hamilton presented an update on how the city is upgrading and expanding its street sweeper program.

According to Hamilton, the city has added two street sweepers to its fleet in the 2024 fiscal year. Three more sweepers have been ordered and are expected to arrive in 2025. The city has six large sweepers and three smaller ones. Two more sweepers are planned to be ordered this year as work continues toward building the fleet to expand the program.

Hamilton gave a report regarding street sweepers to the council in September and called the presentation a “mid-year review of where we are” in what is a multi-year strategy.

“The bottom line, up front, is we are doing and have done and are doing exactly what we said we would back in September and have made some progress,” Hamilton said. 

The delay in delivery is “really a challenge” when it comes to growing the program, Hamilton told the council. Once the city receives its new street sweepers, there are plans to upgrade numbers in personnel as necessary.

He also said some neighborhoods have a greater need for the sweepers than others, particularly older neighborhoods that may have more trees and falling leaves that create a greater risk of storm drains becoming clogged.

After a neighborhood is identified as needing a street sweeper, the city adds it to its schedule to maintain clean streets and clear storm drains.

Program Scope

• 157 Major Thoroughfare Streets
• ALDOT highways w/concrete barrier (I-565, Research Park Boulevard, Memorial Parkway, Governors Drive via Dug Hill Road)
• Downtown, cemeteries, Cummings Research Park, public parking garages/lots
• Neighborhood clean-up events, special events, problematic areas related to drainage infrastructure
• As needed for spills or illegal dumping sites
• Added 11 neighborhoods to semi-annual schedule following their special neighborhood clean-up event

Plan going forward 

• Reorganize into a centralized operating unity within LM (done)
• Increase fleet by 2 sweepers per year (next 3 years)
  (received two this year; 3 currently on order to be received in 2025)
• Establish backup fleet as part of the growth
  (done; will continue to grow as fleet grows)
• Increase personnel as needed based on fleet growth
  (currently have 8 operators; will grow as fleet grows)
• Continue funding in the 1990 CIP (Fleet Capital Plan)