Video

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Going Paperless

It seems inevitable that winter maintenance activities involve lots of paperwork. Keeping track of your operations is important, because you can’t manage it if you don’t measure it. But is there a way to do away with the paperwork and data entry and instead automate the data collection process? What sort of reports do you need to generate to be able to manage your operations effectively? Let’s discuss what it would take to go paperless. You may be surprised to learn that this goal is more easily reachable than you think.

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National Weather Service and Public Works, a natural partnership

National Weather Service staff from around the Country will provide information to attendees on NWS weather products that may be useful to public works operations, a basic tutorial on how weather radar works, an introduction to the Weather Ready Nation effort, and other weather hot topics.

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ENVISIONing Sustainability: Resilient Change in a Changing World

The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision® is a decision-making guide, providing sustainability metrics for all types of infrastructure assets. The industry understanding of resilience has grown tremendously, especially in the wake of hurricanes occurring over the last ten years. ISI has identified the need to expand the Envision® framework to incorporate a more advanced appreciation and understanding of resilience. The updated Envision v3 will also include a greater emphasis on evaluating the economics of infrastructure projects.

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Beyond the SMART CITY: Positioning Your Public Works Agency for an Unimaginable Future

An avalanche of new technologies that will transform the urban fabric is upon us! We are already preparing for and implementing some of these new advancements. With each new technology comes a full array of unforeseen complications. For example, autonomous, self-driving, and driverless cars are being tested in cities across the nation. Some jurisdictions are planning for or already using instruments that detect the presence of cell phones to measure traffic volume and adjust signal timing. But have we fully discussed what the need for broadband, fiber optics, and telecommunications will be to implement these and other technologies? Some cities are repurposing utility and traffic signal infrastructure to provide broadband services and thereby, achieving new municipal revenue sources. Emerging issues and trends such as smart growth, the sharing economy, new urbanism, transit-oriented development, co-housing, etc., will forever change our profession’s perspectives on resource management, engineering design, telecommunications, and our interactions with the public. Come join in on this timely conversation.

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Enhancing the Power of Public Works through Asset Management, Part 1: Concept and Goals – Public Works Asset Management

The panel will discuss the concepts and goals of public works asset management by focusing on the initial development of a roadmap, governance model, asset data gathering, data cleaning, and the development of condition and risk scores.

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The Power of Columbia’s Urban Forestry Master Plan

Columbia, Missouri’s Urban Forestry Master Plan is a roadmap that provides detailed information, recommendations, and resources to effectively and proactively manage and grow the City’s urban tree canopy. The plan includes a detailed analysis of the urban tree canopy and public street trees, leaf litter issues, an emerald ash borer strategy, ordinance development, maintenance budgeting, and an ESRI StoryMap to communicate results and recommendations to the general public.

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Economic Impacts and Innovation Opportunities in Implementing a Circular Economy

RISN is a partnership between the City of Phoenix and Arizona State University to bring together government, university, and non-governmental entities to create a resource-focused Sustainable Urban Metabolism (SUM) platform that supports trash as a resource for economic development opportunity. RISN provides a bridge for researchers to connect their outputs with the entrepreneurs best positioned to translate them into social and economic outcomes. Don’t miss this discussion of RISN’s incubator, a niche business accelerator for entrepreneurs in the early stages of waste-to-product innovation.

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Modernizing Snow and Ice Program Lowers Costs, Increases Efficiency

The City of Westfield, Massachusetts had been conducting its snow and ice control operations using the same antiquated practices for years. Discover how the implementation of GIS technologies and cellular/radio communications improved the ability to track operations and easily adjust to changing storm tracks and conditions. The system also provided a mechanism for tracking vendor location and payments. These modernization efforts have resulted in increased productivity, reduced costs, and improved services.

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Applications of TSMO on Snow & Ice: An Ohio Perspective

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) uses its Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) network to enhance all phases of its snow and ice control program. Components include a 24/7/365 Traffic Management Center, a network of 640 CCTV cameras, 2400 centerline miles of real-time speed data, 130 dynamic message signs, 30 highway advisory radios, a traveler information mobile app/website and a partnership with the National Weather Service for prediction.

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How Partnering with the Feds Can Help Move Winter Road Safety into the Future!

Discover how the winter road technologies being implemented by public works departments tie in with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Every Day Counts and Weather Savvy Roads initiatives. It is essential that local governments and FHWA work together to plan for the impacts of new transportation and vehicle technologies on winter road safety.

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