CLAREMONT — The city’s Department of Public Works has won a national Bold Steps award through the Federal Highway Administration’s Build a Better Mousetrap Program.
Workers invented and built a unit called a “Custom Culvert Steamer Hook-Lift Body,” which fits onto the bed of department trucks, Ted Wadleigh, assistant director of the Claremont Public Works Department said in a Friday morning phone interview.
During the colder months, DPW employees use a steamer to thaw and defrost frozen pipes and culverts. In order to get the steamer — which weighs around 1,500 lbs. when filled with water — into the bed of a truck, crews would have to attach it to a forklift or loader to move it, Wadleigh said. This would require workers to climb into the bed of the truck to operate the steamer, often during icy and slippery weather conditions.
“We realized it was a cumbersome activity to get this loaded in the back of the truck. Obviously safety is number one for us,” Wadleigh said. Department officials started to think about “How can we make this safer and easier for our employees?”
Workers started brainstorming ideas and came up with an idea to contain the steamer, and the generator needed to operate it. They built a body that fit the items, a ladder to get up to it and a platform that surrounds the body. Additional features, including railings and toe guards, were also added to improve safety.
“People don’t have to climb in the back body of the truck now,” Wadleigh said, adding that there is a hook on the back of the truck that workers can use to lift the body into place. “You can run it from ground level, or you have a ladder to walk around it.”
Chris Bergeron, Kenny Hamilton, Warren Mordenti and Bruce Therrien spent a couple months designing the body.
“It wasn’t every day, it was kind of when they had the time,” Wadleigh said. “They’re very intuitive and always looking to make things better here at the city.”
It cost about $2,400 in materials to make and is a cost-saving measure for the department, he added.
“We’re trying to get it out there that we’re trying to save money, be efficient and err on the side of safety,” Wadleigh said. “Definitely a big win for us and the public to know that were intuitive and can problem solve and create these things, which if you had to go out and purchase this things, you’re talking thousands of dollars.”
The DPW entered the contest through the University of New Hampshire’s Technology Transfer Center, also known as the UNH T2 Center. The center chose three state-level submissions to enter into the national contest and Claremont’s design was one of three award winners chosen from around 130 entries, Wadleigh said. It is the third time Claremont’s DPW has entered the competition and the first time it has won.
“Claremont’s project is an excellent example of the creativity and innovation that exists within New Hampshire’s public works community,” Lee Cooper, program coordinator for the UNH T2 Center, said in the release. “The team developed a practical, cost-effective solution to a longstanding safety challenge that can serve as a model for municipalities across the country.”
The “friendly competition,” as Wadleigh described it, can help benefit public works departments around the country. He said he’d be OK with other departments duplicating Claremont’s design and would, in fact, encourage it.
“In the public works realm, that’s what this whole program is about,” Wadleigh said.
