Hillsborough County, Florida, where the city of Tampa is located, is going to spend tens of thousands of dollars to remove asbestos components from its electric streetcars. Some of the electrical parts in the streetcars are old — from the 1930s — and they contain asbestos, a toxic mineral linked to several types of cancer and respiratory diseases.

Asbestos inside Ceramic Insulating Devices

A spokesman for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART), Ed Crawford, explained that the asbestos is inside ceramic insulating devices installed beneath the passenger cabin and in controller boxes used to increase and decrease the speed of the streetcars.

Replacement with New Parts

According to Crawford, although no problems had been detected with the devices and they presented no significant risk to passengers or workers on the streetcars, the asbestos-containing parts will be replaced with newly made parts that are expected to be ready in a couple of months.

The problem was revealed when streetcar maintenance workers learned that some of the streetcars had old electrical components that contained asbestos; transit officials then ordered that the components be replaced. HART rejected a proposal to move the streetcars to an offsite, sealed location for the replacement work. At a cost of $310,000, the plan was considered too expensive.

An In-House Project

HART plans to have the work done in-house at a lower price, but the project will nevertheless be costly because of the stringent asbestos removal regulations that are now in place.

The population of Tampa alone is more than 380,000. The “Tampa Bay Area,” or the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater area, has roughly 3 million residents.

(Source: The Tampa Tribune)

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