Industries Served: Cleaning Public Infrastructure

by Diane M. Calabrese | Published September 2026

 

 

Airport runways and water towers have a lot in common. The public makes heavy use of them, yet the how of maintenance generates little thought. If the structure functions as promised, few take notice.

Public infrastructure plays critical roles in societal safety and sanitation. Its integrity gets a large assist from the high-pressure washing and waterjetting industries.

The demanding work often starts when a prospective service provider must complete a bid proposal. Proposal requirements can be surprising.

A request for proposals from Baltimore County, MD, to repair, maintain, and replace guardrails on county roads, which was due by March 31, 2025, required bidders to affirm they were not a business, entity, or person engaging in business in Iran. (See section M in the request for proposal)

In many states, such as Maryland, requests for bids are not only prescriptive (how and when work will be done), but they are also restrictive in terms of the composition of team members who will be deployed, when and how they will be paid, etc. It’s complicated.

Even so, the reward of working on public infrastructure is two-fold. One, the work directly impacts the well-being of communities. Two, payment is good.

In May and early June 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) began the markup of H.R.8870 called the Build America 250 Act, the five-year authorization of the surface transportation bill. The T&I committee compiled letters it received in support of the Act.

A letter—serving as an example of the many sent—in support of the of Build America 250 from Charles Crain, managing vice president—policy, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), to the committee chairman (Congressman Sam Graves) reviews the significance of infrastructure investment.

Crain cites the $2.9 trillion that manufacturers contribute to the U.S. economy and reviews the essential role infrastructure plays in ensuring the expeditious movement of raw material, finished products, and the components (as well as the hands and minds that make them).

An aspect of H.R. 8870 that deserves emphasis is the attempt it makes to streamline regulations. The tug and pull between streamlining and augmenting regulations likely will continue, but there is a concern about balance at the highest levels of policymaking.

Balance becomes an operative word for public infrastructure in 2026, not only in the realm of regulations but also in the context of environmental concerns. Whether infrastructure is being cleaned, refurbished, or built, entities such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advocate for approaches that tread most lightly on the environment.

Moreover, the EPA uses the term “green infrastructure” and includes a portal filled with suggestions. Given the extent to which members of our industry continue to do more with less (water, energy, and chemicals), helping society meet its goals of sustainability and economic activity is a natural component of the activities of contractors, distributors, and manufacturers.

In this third decade of the 21^st century, designers and engineers of public infrastructure increasingly tie together the concepts of sustainability and maintenance. In short, the design of infrastructure should include attention to how it will be maintained.

The integration of design, build, and use is one that environmentalists and those who meet the needs of maintenance of public infrastructure appreciate. For example, sanitary sewers built into new parking garages and water pipes that carry recycled water so that it can be used for cleaning (instead of potable water) are as welcomed by environmentalists as they are by contractors.

As service life of infrastructure gets longer—even just a bit longer—the need for resources to replace or repair diminishes. As it happens, waterjetting tools play an important part in testing necessary coatings and substrates to assess how well they will hold up to elements and stress (e.g., vehicular and foot traffic)

Safety garners as much attention as sustainability in our time, and the development of robotic tools that keep operators at a safe distance or outside a confined space or at ground level proceed apace. UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] or drones are already in use by contractors.

One of the most difficult parts of developing what some call a hosing drone is bringing into balance the reaction forces and torques generated by a hose moving off ground so that it doesn’t swing. A gantry works, but that’s a lot of weight. An open-access paper published in 2024 in the International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) titled “Hydro Jet – Efficient Rooftop Cleaning System with External High-Pressure Water Integration” includes an excellent literature survey.

The literature survey of the types of robotic configurations that have been deployed will fascinate the innovators among our readers who have not seen the paper. So, too, will the hardware and software descriptions in the design concept presented by the authors: Abhilash Naik et al.

We turn (in the next section) to the sanitation component of public infrastructure. Therein, George Erskin, co-founder of Cyclone Eco Power Wash in Sacramento, CA, shares some of his firsthand experiences.

 

Q&A with George Erskin 

 

Cleaner Times (CT): Tell us about the day-to-day at your company.

Erskin: In the pressure washing and site services industry, no two days look the same. At Cyclone Eco Power Wash, we say we’re not just cleaning surfaces; we’re responding to situations most people never realize are unfolding across their communities in real time.

 

CT: What is one of the ways your company serves the public infrastructure industry?

Erskin: We serve a wide range of public infrastructure sectors, from municipalities and transportation to commercial properties and industrial facilities. Each has its own rhythm and its own demands. But among all of them, waste management stands out as one of the most urgent, most unpredictable relationships we maintain.  Honestly, we love it.

Waste haulers are essentially blind to what they’re picking up. Despite strict guidelines, a single load can contain household chemicals, paints, oils, automotive fluids, and unidentified liquids all mixed. When leaks, spills, or load-related incidents occur in the field, the consequences land squarely in public spaces.

That’s where we come in—not just for cleaning but for rapid-response restoration. A roadway, parking lot, or commercial frontage has been compromised and must be returned to safe, usable condition immediately. It’s environmental protection, public safety, and surface restoration all happening at once.

 

CT: What is most challenging about serving the industry?

Erskin: Unpredictability combined with urgency. When something goes wrong with a waste hauler, it tends to go very wrong and very fast. One case that stands out: A waste collection truck experienced a load fire and had to dump its contents in front of a busy hotel. These situations are more common than most people realize; they just rarely make the news.

In moments like this, cleaning is the last step, not the first. We start by securing the area, then move to protecting storm drains and preventing contaminated runoff from reaching the stormwater system. Only then do we assess the surface—asphalt requires a fundamentally different approach than concrete—and begin pretreatment for staining and contamination.

The real challenge isn’t just technical. It’s managing time pressure, public visibility, and environmental responsibility simultaneously, in full view of the community, with no margin for error.

 

CT: Can you share an example of a problem you helped a customer in the industry solve?

Erskin: A common scenario: A waste hauler unknowingly transports mixed materials containing oils or chemical residues. During transit, a leak trails across drive lanes, parking areas, and pedestrian walkways at a shopping center or mixed-use development, and then the clock really starts ticking.

Cars drive through it. Pedestrians walk through it. That contamination gets tracked across the entire property into building lobbies, retail entrances, elevators, and parking garages. What started as a localized spill becomes a widespread problem within the hour, and the waste company knows it. The call we get is never casual. It’s always urgent: “We need you here now.” Liability is on the line, and every minute the area stays open, the contamination spreads farther.

Our response involves rapidly isolating the affected zones, then working outward to assess how far the material has traveled. We apply pretreatments matched to the specific contaminant and perform controlled cleaning that lifts staining without damaging the underlying surface, whether that’s asphalt, concrete, or interior flooring near entry points.

The goal is always the same: Stop the spread, restore safety, and return the space to normal before the situation becomes a larger liability for everyone involved.

We were called because our response time is among the best in the region and because when we leave, there’s often no trace the incident ever happened. In high-stakes situations where a company’s liability, reputation, and public image are all on the line at once, that matters more than almost anything else.

At Cyclone we’ve learned that pressure washing is rarely about appearance alone. More often it’s about response time, environmental accountability, and helping essential industries keep communities safe—one unexpected call at a time.