New trash facility expected to cost $26M
County commissioners award contract for new hub on L.B. McLeod Road
Orange County needs a new transfer station for garbage — and the dirty place will cost a pretty penny.
County commissioners on Tuesday voted to award a $26-million contract for a new trash hub on L.B. McLeod Road, one of two countyrun stations where curbside trash collected in neighborhoods is transferred into bigger trucks then hauled to the landfill.
The station, originally owned by Orlando, dates to 1960 when it opened as an incinerator.
Along with providing safe drinking water and police and fire protection, collecting and disposing of garbage is among the most important — and expensive — responsibilities of local governments not only in Central Florida but across the nation.
The McLeod Road transfer station handled over 200,000 tons of garbage in 2017 and 167,000 tons in 2018, though it was idle last year for several months after a fire.
Orange County, which boasts one of Florida’s largest solid-waste systems, has been planning for more than two years to replace the station, located on 10 acres in southwest Orlando in an industrial area west of Conroy Road and Interstate 4.
The station was acquired from Orlando in 1984 and last renovated in 1986.
“It’s old. It’s dingy. It’s outdated,” said David Gregory, manager of Orange County’s solid waste division.
The old facility will be demolished.
In planning documents, the new hub is described as “a modern facility that can handle the increasing
volume of waste in a more economically and operationally efficient and environmentally sound manner.”
While the property is owned by Orlando, Orange County has a long-term lease on the site. The operating capacity of the station is planned to increase from 900 tons a day to 2,000 tons daily.
Contractors will install new underground infrastructure, truck scales, utilities and build a vehiclemaintenance facility as well as offices.
Demolishing the old facility and building a new one on the same site will require shutting down the McLeod Road hub for up to 18 months, inconveniencing some waste-haulers who will have to find another transfer station.
Orange County’s other facility is the Porter Transfer Station at 326 Good Homes Road, about six miles away.
Waste Management also operates a private transfer station near the county’s McLeod Road station.
A transfer station is an industrial facility where solid waste is temporarily held before heading to a landfill.
Ten-ton garbage trucks that run neighborhood routes drop off their trash at a transfer station, then return to neighborhoods to pick up more trash.
The trash left at the transfer station is loaded into 18-wheel rigs, which can lug up to 24 tons of garbage to the landfill, a 30-minute ride away.
Transfer stations are key cogs in an efficient trashcollecting operation, Gregory said.
“Garbage-collecting trucks should be collecting garbage,” he said. “They shouldn’t be making frequent long drives to the landfill.”
Because shutting down the McLeod Road hub slows down solid-waste operations, the county offered financial incentives to the winning bidder, Kokolakis Contracting, for early completion of the project.
The company could make $13,000 a day for every day it beats its deadline up to 90 days — a bonus payday of $1.17 million.