Roosevelt Island AVAC Garbage System Out Of Service For Some Building On Friday And Saturday - Something Was Stuck But Fixed Now

Image Of Building Garbage Chute Connected To Roosevelt Island AVAC System

Some Roosevelt Island residents, including me, had problems getting rid of their garbage on Friday and Saturday due to all of the garbage chutes in their buildings being closed. I inquired of RIOC President Steve Shane and VP of Operations Fernando Martinez:

The garbage chutes on each floor in my building have been shut down since last Friday and am told that it is because of a problem with the Roosevelt Island AVAC garbage system. Something is stuck.

Can you provide any additional details as to what the problem is and when it is expected to be fixed.

Image of Roosevelt Island AVAC from Roosevelt Island 360

Both Mr. Shane and Mr. Martinez responded quickly that they would look into the situation. Several minutes later Mr. Martinez replied:

Apparently, there is garbage stuck in the pipe line. The AVAC crew is working on it right now and should have it up and running by today. All of the buildings on the East side of RI are affected: Eastwood and South Town Buildings.

I will let you know as soon as it is back in operation

At 9:46 PM, Mr. Shane forwarded the following:

Subject: blockage in the east side AVAC pipe & Southtown

East side AVAC system has been cleared, problem has been resolved all buildings may resume normal usage at this time.

Good job by RIOC in promptly resolving this problem.

The New Yorker explains how Roosevelt Island AVAC system works:

The Avac is New York’s only pneumatic garbage-collection system. Designed in the late nineteen-sixties to service Roosevelt Island’s housing developments, the system runs under all the island’s high-rises. When people throw their garbage down the trash chutes, it piles up for several hours, until a trapdoor opens, sucking the waste into a big underground pipe. Then a complex system of air valves propels the garbage through the pipe at speeds of up to sixty miles per hour. When the trash resurfaces at the Avac center, a squat building at the northern tip of the island, it is dumped into two silo-shaped cyclones, where it is spun like cotton candy and then whooshed down chutes into huge containers...