By KIM CALVERT Special to the Daily Press
Los Angeles County’s new sandbag machines take a load off county workers’ backs to protect structures from water damage.
A $55,000 grant from the Quality and Productivity Commission made it possible for Los Angeles County to purchase three sandbagging machines, which allows one maintenance employee to make 1,800 sandbags in an hour. Without the machines, it took a group of workers three times as long to do the same amount of work.
A loader scoops up the sand and dumps it into the machine. The sand then empties into a chute and is mechanically distributed into bags.
One of the machines, located at the county’s maintenance yard on Venice Beach, was a big help during the recent storms, according to Los Angeles County District Manager Carlos Zim-merman.
“We produced enough sandbags to keep structures protected and we had a surplus amount that was used by residents to protect their property as well,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2005. Read the original PDF.