Video
A large component of the City of Houston’s growth has come from the annexation of smaller communities, which has included the accumulation of small, decentralized wastewater collection and treatment systems. At present, the City owns and operates 39 wastewater treatment plants. As many of these facilities have aged and require significant upgrades to maintain reliable service, the City has sought to find opportunities to consolidate flow into fewer facilities and decommission smaller, aging plants. The City’s Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant (SEWWTP) has plenty of space for expansion, and two nearby facilities, Sagemont and Easthaven Wastewater Treatment Plants, are aging and in need of expensive upgrades to remain in service. The City is in the process of a two-stage expansion of the SEWWTP to accept flow from these two facilities. This presentation will outline the challenges encountered and solutions developed in executing this consolidation plan, including conveyance and capacity upgrades to an aging facility.
While many agencies and municipalities acquire land for a single purpose, learn from our panelists ways to generate income from rights-of-way and easements and maximize benefits to the public Land…
With more than 11,000 miles of roadways and an annual snowfall amount averaging 131 inches, the Province of New Brunswick's (PNB) winter fleet is no stranger to the "snow fight." Together with telematics partner, Northern BI, Highway Maintenance Engineer Jordan Stephens has been using telematics to manage the 450-plus fleet. Tasked with reducing a $60 million snow clearing budget, Jordan wanted to see if telematics could find areas of waste within the fleet. Having only used paper-based routes for plowing and salt/sand spreading, Northern BI recommended optimizing these age-old processes to improve efficiencies. Hear from PNB's Jordan Stephens, and Northern BI President Dwayne Primeau, on how they are leveraging IoT data to transform the province's winter fleet operations.
Top Trending Technology for Field Crews was one of the selected technologies for APWA’s Top Trending Technologies program of 2021. This presentation will provide the audience an introduction to the TTT program in APWA, the background of the top tech for field crews topic, and the technologies explored in the program. The presentation is tailored for those technologies that are most applicable to the snowfighters and winter operations. The APWA Top Trending Technologies program has been very successful and the demand for information from our membership has been robust. The area of field crew technologies, innovations, and tools has been one of the most requested. There are many new and innovative tools for field crews and this session will provide an examination and introduction of those technologies that are currently available and generally accessible to public works crews.
In 2018, the City of Arvada had a strategic goal to meet the Better Building Challenge for 2020, which was to show a 20% reduction in energy usage for all 18 of its facilities. At the time, the City was tracking at 8%. To meet the target, the City had to address the gorilla in the room, the most energy-sucking facility on its portfolio, the 120,000 square foot performing arts center. In 2018, Ameresco and the City of Arvada partnered to implement many creative energy-saving measures and infrastructure improvements. It took creative design and thinking to make significant upgrades to city facilities to include renewable energy improvements, tariff rate changes, and new equipment for the City to meet the target to reduce 20% energy by 2020. This $4.2 million project was backed by the State of Colorado Energy office–guaranteeing savings and energy reduction. The City will see a return on investment within 12 years and has already been tracking above projected milestones.
Dallas Water Utilities (DWU)—Stormwater Operations shows how to chart the course for a more resilient future through an ambitious comprehensive assessment of their Storm Drainage Management program. Their approach demonstrates ways to identify and communicate resource needs, satisfy regulatory requirements, allocate budgets wisely, enhance efficiency, and improve customer service. The assessment includes a review of their organizational structure and business practices; an asset inventory and data management; hydrology and hydraulic modeling and solution development for chronic flooding areas; and development of a strategic approach to capital project planning financing and implementation. The presentation includes DWU’s initial findings and preliminary recommendations on organizational structure, business practices, and data management.
Many suburban communities are concerned about building roundabouts as they are not convinced about its benefits. Government officials may not know how to start the feasibility study, available funding sources, design details, and best practices. The biggest challenge is to convince residents of the benefits and use of roundabouts. The Village of Orland Park successfully built its first roundabout in 2019. The Village went through various design, funding, and approval processes and successfully delivered its first roundabout to its residents. The Village is now in the process of building a second and a third privately-funded roundabout. This presentation will discuss and provide real-life details of designing and building a suburban roundabout in a community where seniors (55 and older) exceed 30% of the population. The presentation will discuss practical tips that should be included in the design of roundabouts.
APWAs Government Affairs team will present the latest regarding APWA’s public policy priorities in the U.S. The focus of the presentation will be a legislative update related to Congress and federal agencies and APWA’s public policy priorities: Transportation, Water Resiliency, and Emergency Management. The presentation will also include an overview of APWA’s advocacy resources for our members to be “the voice of public works” to government leaders, the public, and media.
Over the past two years, municipalities across the nation have been conducting risk and resilience assessments and updated emergency response plans (ERPs) to ensure compliance with the American Water Infrastructure Act of 2018. The City of Chattanooga, Tennessee, partnered with Jacobs Engineering to conduct a comprehensive review of all city departmental ERPs to ensure compliance with National Incident Management System and Incident Command System. Developing an enterprise emergency response plan will facilitate effective coordination and cooperation between inter-city agencies and mutual supporting departments such as the Hamilton County and Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
The City has a combination of federal, state, and local compliance requirements, in addition to local surface water quality improvement programs, which have resulted in the construction of hundreds of watershed improvement projects. The projects include watershed improvement project retrofits (e.g., pond upfits, stormwater wetland, and rain garden retrofits) and stream and wetland restoration/improvement projects. The assets have been managed by individual departments, sites, and programs to varying degrees of success. In 2020, in order to improve the management consistency of these assets, the Charlotte Storm Water Services Department proposed the development of a Long-Term Stewardship Program (L-TS). This presentation will discuss the initial development of the L-TS program and the phased approach to building and implementing the program, and lessons learned.