Works and Engineering official said yesterday.

Mr. David Arden, the ministry's chief engineer, said the waste would notimmediately be burned in the incinerator's oven.

"We have to get some in stock,'' and the plant's operators needed to be trained in how to handle the waste, Mr. Arden told The Royal Gazette .

Operators use an overhead crane to move household waste from a huge pit into the oven at the $70-million incinerator on Palmetto Road.

Works and Engineering trucks would likely take about 100 tons a day to the plant, starting late in the week, Mr. Arden said.

Once it is up and running, each of the plant's two waste streams can burn six tons of waste an hour.

The plant would likely start up "in a test mode'' in about the middle of May.

"It's difficult to say when we would stop taking waste to the Pembroke Dump,'' Mr. Arden said. "We'll be taking waste to that site for some time to come.

"It may be that we won't have the plant fully commissioned, even if things go well, until about the end of the year.'' There would likely be stops and starts in the commissioning process, meaning all waste would be coming to the incinerator at some times, and some waste would have to go to Pembroke Dump at others.

By the end of the year, it was hoped Pembroke Dump would be basically closed, though tipping of some materials would continue there for a time, he said.

Of the two major overseas contractors, civil engineer Pihl and Son of Denmark would leave in June, while Swiss electrical-mechanical contractor Von Roll Ltd. would remain until the end of the year, he said.