Roosevelt Island, NY

After operating at full capacity for 44 years, RIOC launched a new public tender in 2019 to modernise the system, which Envac’s technical proposal was the winner.

The upgrade project executed by Envac was carried out both along the three kilometres of transport pipe network and in the collection station. The control system was completely renovated and the turbo exhausters replaced, frequency converters that achieve significant energy savings were installed.

We also did partial renovation of cables and connections of the general network and replaced 10 inlets valves and 5 air valves in the discharge network. Future contracts will address the replacement and/or improvement of the rest of the valves, a total of 45 units.

Thanks to these improvements, the collection process has been optimised, and significant savings in electricity consumption have been achieved. It should be noted that in more than five decades, the pneumatic waste collection system has never stopped working, even in the most adverse weather conditions.

For example, in 2010, severe snow storms shut down New York City’s public services and operatives for three weeks. The chaos reached, of course, the transit of waste collection trucks. The Roosevelt Island system did not stop its activity at any time. Nor even did it in presence of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when the rest of the public services in New York City were again depleted and collapsed.

This is the first and only existing pneumatic system in New York City. Envac has also delivered systems to New Jersey and to the Disney World leisure complex in Orlando (Florida).