Starting this week, the
Needham DPW Highway Division will be conducting its spring street sweeping program between the hours of 7 am and 3 pm Monday through Friday.
The Town contractor’s vacuum sweeper will work in tandem with the Town’s mechanical sweeper to clear the roads of debris and road salt leftover from winter storms.
All public roadways, private streets that have a blue “Private Way” tab at the top of the street sign, and public parking lots are cleaned in spring and fall to minimize pollutants, including sediment, debris, yard waste, trash, de-icing materials, and trace metals.
DPW staff will start the street sweeping in the Peacedale Road neighborhood and work their way counterclockwise throughout the entire town. Residents are kindly asked to please limit their on-street parking during this period so that the Town can sweep and clean the entire street. Weather permitting, the spring street sweeping should be completed in 2-4 weeks.
Pollutants in storm water runoff are significant contributors to aquatic habitat degradation, nuisance algal growth, low dissolved oxygen and toxicity in receiving water bodies. An increased focus of street sweeping is the removal of organic matter, such as leaves which can contribute significant amounts of phosphorus to runoff as the matter decomposes.
Street sweeping programs provide several benefits in addition to water quality improvement. Co-benefits of the program include improved aesthetics, potential reduction in flooding associated with clogging of storm water conveyance systems, and reduced air pollution. Removing sand and debris from the road surface also makes it safer for bicycles and motorcycles to travel the roads.
