Modeling the Increased Complexity of New York City's Refuse Marine Transport System

The New York City Department of Sanitation operates the world's largest refuse marine transport system. Waste trucks unload their cargo at land-based transfer stations where refuse is placed in barges and then towed by tugboats to the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. In the early 1980s, the city commissioned the development of a computer-based model for use in fleet sizing and operations planning. As a result of the complexities introduced by environmental regulation and technological innovation, the marine transport system operations changed and the existing model became obsolete. Based on the success achieved with the first model in 1993, the city commissioned the development of a new model. In this paper, we present a PC-based model developed to meet the increased complexity of the system. Analysis performed for validation and calibration of the model demonstrates that it tracks well the operations of the real system. We illustrate through a detailed design exercise how to use the model to configure the system in a way that meets the requirements of the refuse marine transport system.