DC’s Benning Road site adds much-needed space, streamlined approach in $8 million expansion.

By Larry Trojak

It seems almost inconceivable that, in 2005, our nation’s capital would still be making wholesale changes to its waste transfer program. We tend to assume that, since our governing bodies reside there, change would emanate from this city and we—the rest of the country—would be simply following its lead. Such, however, is not the case. In fact, because of difficulty meeting EPA regulations, only in the last 10 years has the city stopped incinerating its MSW. However, while change in Washington may not be quick in coming about, when it does, it’s significant, a fact borne out in the ongoing $8 million expansion of the city’s Benning Road Transfer Station. When complete, the upgraded site, which once struggled to handle 500 tpd of waste, will be capable of transferring as much as 2,500 tpd. Much of the tipping floor and loading area will be fully enclosed and a trio of new Builtrite Model 2100 Material Handlers from Northshore Mfg. will be at work maximizing trailer volumes as they leave the site.

In Need of a Change
Waste transfer is an unfortunate fact of life in the Washington metro area, according to Ronald Marshall, facility manager at the Benning Road site.

“There’s simply no other option for us in this area,” he says. “The DC area generates better than 4,000 tons of MSW each day, and every bit of it has to be removed by truck from the area. About half that volume goes to the Energy/Resource Recovery Facility in nearby Fairfax County [Virginia], but the remainder gets landfilled and the nearest fill, the King George Landfill, is 76 miles away in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Other loads are hauled 130 miles and 140 miles to the Charles City and Middle Peninsula landfills, respectively. The bottom line is an efficient transfer station system is key for the District.”

Building Blocks
Until recently, trucks coming into the Benning Road site would dump their loads into a pit and then cranes would pick them up out of the pit and load them onto a conveyor, which fed it into the truck. It was a very slow and cumbersome process that needed upgrading badly. Initial expansion work was started in February 2004, and according to Adedeji Fawole, senior project engineer for Columbia, MD–based SCS Engineers, the design team hired by general contractor Keystone Plus, it had its own set of challenges from the outset.

“Even in the design phase, we were faced with a number of challenges,” he says. “The north and east sides of the site are bordered by undeveloped park land owned and operated by the US Parks Service. On the south side is the massive Pepco power plant and there are parking areas throughout that could not be blocked or eliminated. So getting the expansion to fit in a relatively small area—yet keep trucks flowing in and out in an efficient manner—took some careful and creative design.”

Fawole adds that the expansion was further complicated by the fact that the transfer station is situated on what was once a landfill itself.

“To ensure stability, we had to drive steel H-piles down 60 feet to bedrock. Once we had those piles in place, we were set to start the build. Keep in mind that the site will remain open all throughout the construction process, with trucks coming in and leaving, so that adds another element of challenge to the project. When it is complete, the entire tipping floor and push-pit area will be covered and enclosed, making the working environment much better, particularly in rainy or snowy weather.”

Phasing In, Loading Out
The site’s expansion—10,000 feet of additional work area—is taking place in phases, with the first phase being the construction and implementation of the new loading area—one of three that will eventually serve the Benning Road site. That first loading area became operational in December 2004.

“We are using Builtrite Model 2100 Material Handlers at each load-out station to tamp, sort, and occasionally pick material that has been pushed into a trailer waiting on a loading ramp below the tipping floor,” says Marshall. “This is far more efficient than anything else we have done in the past. Each handler has a reach of about 27 feet, more than enough to access areas around the load-out opening as well as all corners of the trailer being loaded. And, because the loader cabs are heated and air conditioned, the operators will have a comfortable working environment throughout the year.”

Tamping the loads, one of the primary functions of the loaders, eliminates voids, which maximizes volumes, says Sylvestre Yorrick, chief of the Department of Public Works’ Disposal Division. “Each trailer is rated for an 80,000-pound load and we want to ensure we get that, considering the distances the trucks have to travel. The waste, particularly when it is right off the tipping floor, is fluffy and needs to be densified.”

To make that happen, each Builtrite Handler is equipped with a flat-bottom grapple, specially sized for the Benning Road operation. “We initially mounted our standard 27-inch grapples on those loaders,” says John Anderson, Northshore Mfg.’s president. “However, due to the size and configuration of the load-out area, they seemed too large. We were able to specially design and build a 19-inch version of that same grapple for the DC site and it has made a real difference for the operators.”

Role Reversal
When fully operational, the Benning Road Transfer Station will essentially be changing roles with its counterpart, the Fort Totten Transfer Station, located about 10 miles away, says Yorrick.

“Fort Totten currently does about 1,500 tons per day and we do 500 tons per day here,” he says. “In March of this year, when our expansion is complete, we will be handling the 2,000 tons per day and Fort Totten will be cut back dramatically. At that time, it will undergo an almost identical expansion to what we are doing here.”

Because each transfer station’s location best serves haulers from different parts of the DC metro area—Fort Totten, the city’s west side; Benning Road, the east side—the Solid Waste Department needs both sites fully operational and knows it can keep both busy.

“The volumes of waste for this area are forecast to increase in the coming years, particularly after the closing of several improperly zoned private transfer stations located within the city limits,” says Yorrick. “When that happens and both expansions are complete, we are forecast to be handling as much as 2,500 tons per day at each site. We are confident that streamlining the transfer process—both through the addition of the loading stations and the use of the Builtrite Handlers to maximize load densities—will help offset the cost of the projects by dramatically improving the efficiencies of both sites.”

Larry Trojak is principal in Trojak Communications at Ham Lake, MN.

MSW - July/August 2005