CHICAGO O’HARE EXPANDS ITS FLEET OF SNOW CLEARANCE VEHICLES

We maybe just coming out of winter, but the Chicago Department of Aviation is already thinking about the next one, announcing that it has acquired 36 snow sweepers from Boschung.

The vehicles, officially called jetbrooms, will join the existing fleet of 29 already successfully in use for the crucial winter operations at Chicago O’Hare.

Boschung is quick to point out that with over 900,000 aircraft operations a year, keeping surfaces operational and traffic moving at Chicago O’Hare is imperative year round.

It claims that its multi-purpose Boschung Jetbroom blower-sweeper-blower is the most powerful and efficient snow clearing vehicle specialised for airport in today’s market.

Its unique compact conception, originally launched in 1985, is built with an exclusive single piece heavy duty chassis allowing the mounting of work equipment onto the platform.

The Jetbroom blower-sweeper-blower approach consists of a broom between the front and back axles of the vehicle with air blowing jets in front of the broom to blast the snow, slush and water lifted by the broom to the side.

A second air jet is blowing left overs behind the broom. It results in a lower angle setting of the sweeping unit which increases the cleaning width and the working speed for a black runway. 

An over 27ft (8.4m) plow is attached to the front of the truck and a high capacity bulk or liquid de-icer fitted on its back making the Jetbroom a multi-purpose winter machine.