An expert guess for Inauguration port-o-john need

WASHINGTON - Estimating how big the Inauguration Day crowds will be in D.C. is a huge challenge, and so is guessing the need for port-o-potties.

Almost 150 will be set up outside Metro stations, but the total number has yet to be determined.

WTOP asked Bob Barton with United Site Services, the largest rent-a-john company in the United States, how many he thinks the city will need?

"We've certainly heard estimates anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 toilets," Barton says.

But the only problem isn't just how many, but where.

"Fifteen hundred portable toilets -- if you put them side by side -- is a line a mile and a half long."

United Site Services has already received an order for more than 500 toilets from the architect of the Capitol. And for some of the VIP events, Barton says they'll bring in luxury restroom trailers.

They'll look like "the restrooms inside a hotel or a fine restaurant -- private stalls and flushing toilets, porcelain fixtures [and] hot and cold running water."

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