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Chattanooga Public Works officials purchase new fleet of multiuse trucks

multiuse-trucks-join-city-fleet multiuse-trucks-join-city-fleet

By Cliff Hightower February 25, 2012 3 min read

Manuel “Manny” Rico

TRUCKSThe city will be getting brand-new Public Works trucks:• Cost: $220,000 each• Functions: Dump truck, leaf truck, snow plow/sand truck• Make: International• Total: Five in 60 days; four more by fallSource: Chattanooga

Chattanooga will soon see a fleet of Transformers in its Public Works yards on 11th Street.

But don’t expect to see Optimus Prime, morphing from a robot to a tractor-trailer. Instead, Chattanooga’s new trucks will be part dump truck, part leaf truck and part snow plow and sand truck.

“They perform three different functions,” said Danny Thornton, interim director of the city’s Department of General Services. “What Public Works is doing is resizing their fleet.”

The city decided to buy the nine trucks after last year’s winter storms repeatedly dumped snow. The largest storm brought 8 inches, paralyzing the city for days.