Tunnel washers
One of the things I still enjoy about my profession as a journalist is that we get to see and do things not everybody has the opportunity to do. On Wednesday night I watched and photographed the cleaning of a Fort McHenry tunnel tube by a machine called a “Unimog.” Any time a machine is involved in an assignment I’m all over it, and with this involving a couple of unique machines, it was right up my alley, or tube, in this case.
- Inside the Fort McHenry tunnel, dirt is washed from the tile after it was scrubbed by a “Unimog.” (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- Unimogs are a range of multi-purpose trucks produced by Mercedes-Benz. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- Approximately, 60,000 gallons of water a night is used, which is then run through the city’s sanitation system. (Gene Sweeney Jr./ Baltimore Sun)
- Cleaning the tunnel is a ten pass process using a 6 foot brush similar to what is used in a car wash. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- This process takes a week per tunnel. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- The state has of three of these quarter million Unimogs, which also has the ability to be used as a snow plow and grass cutter. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- A solution called “soot-be-gone” is added to the water for a cleaning solution. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- Once the Unimogs have gone through, two water spraying trucks follow for rinsing the tile. (Gene Sweeney Jr./ Baltimore Sun)
- Cleaning the tunnel provides better reflective qualities which will show the brake lights of vehicles around the curve of the tunnel as well as appearance. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
- It is a continual cleaning process from April through Thanksgiving through all the tunnel tubes. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)
Shown are the two German made “Unimogs” cleaning the ceramic tiles through the left-hand, south-bound tube at the Fort McHenry tunnel. It is a continual process from April through Thanksgiving through all the tunnel tubes. It is a ten-pass process using a 6-foot brush similar to what is used in a car wash. This process takes a week per tunnel. They use approximately 60,000 gallons of water (total) per night, which is then run through the city’s sanitation system. The state has three of these quarter-million dollar machines, which have the ability to be used as a snow plow and grass cutter.
Once the “Unimogs” have gone through, two water spraying trucks follow for rinsing the tile. This is done for appearance plus much better reflective qualities, which will show the brake lights of vehicles around the curve of the tunnel. They use a solution called “soot-be-gone” added to water for their cleaning solution.
So next time you drive through one of the tunnels, and notice the tiles are clean, you will now know the process that does the job.
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Apr 14, 2012 @ 03:36:14
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