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The United States is spending only 2.4% of GDP on transportation and water infrastructure compared to an average 4% in Europe and 9% in China. Much of the nation's water and sanitary sewer infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life and will require billions of dollars of investment over the next 20 years. The dilemma for water and sewer utilities is how to raise revenues to meet the current and impending needs. Raising rates will require a considerable amount of political will. The City of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, developed an effective program for disseminating information to the city council, local businesses, and the public; and in the end, won approval for a $25 million infrastructure improvement plan.Learning Objectives: Communicate infrastructure funding needs in easily understandable terms.Attain community involvement by partnering with groups like the Rotary Club, veterans organizations, and business leaders to be advocates for the necessary rate increases.Take advantage of the programs and results achieved by other cities in setting up your community's plan to address infrastructure funding.
Don't miss this exploration into how to implement, plan, and conduct a facilities condition assessment (FCA). You will hear firsthand about Sumter County, Florida's experience with the process. They will share the criteria used for selecting a contractor, discuss how to prioritize which facilities/buildings need to addressed first, and describe how they were able to use the collected data for useful budgetary planning.Learning Objectives:Develop a plan of attack in mapping out and prioritizing the process.Evaluate the credentials of contractors to do the facility condition assessments.Use the final delivered report as a ""go-to"" reference to continue improving the operational condition of facilities for years to come.
It had been 50 years since a major hurricane hit Northeast Florida, but in October 2016, Hurricane Matthew brought damaging winds and flooding to St. Augustine and nearby cities. This session will provide an overview of the storm, its impact on the city, and a candid assessment and lessons learned throughout the event and restoration efforts. Focus will be given to the issues faced by smaller cities with limited resources and broader span of control. Learn from their experiences and take away valuable lessons about how to better prepare for when disaster occurs in your community.Learning Objectives:Assess and compare the preparation, response, and restoration efforts of small cities in Northeast Florida.Identify and evaluate how these experiences can be related to situations and conditions in your own community.Discuss practices and recommend procedures that are successful in hurricane response, including coordinaton with federal, state, and local relief and response agencies.
Utility companies are using directional drilling as the preferred method for installing cables, pipelines, conduit, and sewers in urban and suburban communities. Directional drilling can significantly reduce impacts on existing infrastructure, reducing the need for roadway restoration and relocation of other utilities. But there can be significant environmental issues if proper monitoring and contingency plans are not in place. This method uses bentonite and polymer in the drilling mud to lubricate the pipe and stabilize the drilling path. Bentonite can be extremely damaging to wetland, river and creek ecosystems. This session will discuss approaches for identification, containment, and clean-up.Learning Objectives:Create contingency plans for directional drilling projects.Identify, contain, and clean-up inadvertent releases from directional drilling.Design, install, and inspect best management practices used in directional drilling.
One of the projects outlined in the City of Omaha, Nebraska's combined sewer overflow (CSO) long-term control plan crossed the Lauritzen Botanical Gardens, a living museum of unique four-season plant displays. The Gardens had been constructed over a closed, solid waste balefill. The combined sewer was located under the balefill more than 800-feet below grade. The weight from the balefill had crushed the existing combined sewers, allowing leachate into the sewer system. Additionally, the drainage system had failed, allowing stormwater to flow into the balefill. How did they solve this complex problem? They developed an innovative solution involving a pipe bridge over the balefill and using four types of trenchless construction.Learning Objectives: Determine how to evaluate various trenchless construction methods for sewer installations.Evaluate the use of auger cast displacement for crossing a landfill.Examine how a storm sewer can be designed to be a pipe bridge.
Has your agency considered using the TowPlow? After years of TowPlow use on our provincial highway network, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has developed some best practices. Details such as…
Hear an operator's perspective for setting up and calibrating ground speed controllers in a bottom up organization. Discussed are lessons learned over 18 years of working with many generations of…
By using pilot programs and conducting cost benefit analysis, the Village of Buffalo Grove has successfully re-written their winter maintenance plan, implemented BMP's for winter maintenance, reduced the amount of…
This session is designed to provide tools and insights to people responsible for managing pavement networks – roads, parking lots, and airfields. In this session, you will learn about the capabilities of the PAVERA""A Sustainment Management System and future development direction. You will hear from a city that is using PAVERA""A to direct its pavement management efforts and learn from their experiences. There will also be a presentation on a full implementation of PAVERA""A at the FBI Academy that will include the use of GIS mapping and mobile technologies to facilitate data collection in a secure area – as well as work planning data that is assisting the Academy in advocating for funding. Time will be provided during and after the session to interact with the speakers and get answers to your questions.Learning Objectives: Receive an introduction and development updates to the USACE PAVERa Sustainment Management SystemExplore how GIS mapping and mobile technologies can be used for data integration.Prioritize pavement maintenance based on measurable data.
Two maintenance workers for the City of Olympia wanted to build an automated valve-turner that would save money, increase efficiency, and reduce repetitive motion injuries. The lead worker took a risk on the idea and, with management support, he managed the team's workloads and schedules and gave the workers the resources to build and test their idea. Learn how the lead w5orker was able to manage concerns from other employees, keep the whole team motivated, and encourage creativity and innovation. In the end, these workers won the APWA Washington Chapter's 2016 award for ""Achieving Dreams through Empowered Public Works Teams.""Learning Objectives: Create an environment where maintenance workers are empowered to innovate.Manage workload and schedules so that corrective and preventive maintenance goals are met.Communicate successes and failures with management to gain support.