Video
Municipal rights of way serve many public interests, A place for utilities is one of those interests. That ROW is becoming more crowded, filled with a mixture of scrap, abandoned…
2020 did not go as expected, and at times, even the weather played a major role. We have assembled a panel of weather experts to break down the latest news and happenings in the world of weather, and discuss the impact it has had on winter maintenance. From extreme weather to getting a forecast correct for the next week, this panel will unpack the issues facing weather forecasting and winter maintenance and discuss proposed solutions. Was the winter of 2020-21 a mild one or did it really cause you all sorts of challenges? The weather seems to make the nightly news’ highlight reel at least weekly. Are those headlines really something we need to be concerned about? This session will take a look at recent headlines from around the country, all the way back to early 2020 if needed, and share solutions for handling these scenarios in the future. The discussion will also cover any recent events that arise in the Winter/Spring of 2021, to ensure that we cover the most critical issues facing maintenance operations. Wilf Nixon will be the moderator of our panel discussion.
Over the last 30 years, a large body of national, international, and industry asset management standards and guidelines have been created. Today the industry continues to struggle with integrating with engineering, accounting, and community planning while aligning corporate goals with daily operations and maintenance, planning, budgeting, and delivery activities. Many organizations continue to have their budget and resource allocation entrenched in short-term, historical based budgeting processes. The challenge is how to adopt and sustain asset management practices to meet the demands and expectation of our communities while managing an aging infrastructure asset base. Where do we start and what does it look like? To assist jurisdictions navigate their asset management journey the American Public Works Association (APWA) has developed an interactive Asset Management (AM) Roadmap. The AM Roadmap is designed to assist communities systematically identify and implement their asset management system. The Asset Management Roadmap is structured around ten key asset management themes defined as Roadmap stops. Under each of the stops is a library of definitions, examples, and templates that communities can both access and contribute to. This session will introduce the APWA AM Roadmap.
Using tools within existing municipal systems, like Esri’s ArcGIS applications, coupled with advanced surveying and mapping technology, can produce valuable project management, asset mapping, and public engagement exhibits. These cutting edge tools can help a municipal team better utilize tools they are already subscribing to, and provide internal and public stakeholders with easy to understand visualizations that aid in the operations, maintenance, and expansion of assets. Presenters will examine the latest technologies in laser scanning and mobile mapping, maximize your ArcGIS subscription, and encourage creative thought in how to use these tools to better manage your assets.
Answering the fundamental question of how an organization compares to others is often not easily answered. Currently, there are no published industry sources available to public works leaders focused on this information for all public works disciplines. An APWA Public Works Leadership Fellows (PWLF) and member of the Leadership and Management Committee (LMC), as well as an APWA Public Works Executive (PWE) will discuss and identify the Committee’s efforts in bridging this gap. The discussion will center on the LMC’s collection and development of a benchmark databased to be used by APWA members of available benchmarks and standards for public works related activities and services.
“Every organization rises or falls based on leadership or the lack thereof”, said the legendary co-inventor of frozen concentrated orange juice, C.D. Atkins. According to the Federal Highway Administration, owners are facing mounting pressure to deliver programs better, faster, smarter, and cheaper. Compounding this, W. Edwards Deming, author and renowned scholar who revolutionized Japan’s manufacturing industry, insisted that leaders are responsible for 85 percent of all an organizations’ problems. Comparatively, imagine as a leader, the possibility of significantly reducing and/or eliminating 85% of all program delivery problems while creating significant and measurable innovations, imaginatively reducing and/or eliminating major project risks, and decreasing delivery times by as much as 50%? It may surprise some that owners are already accomplishing these “industry-changing” results. In this session, the presenters offer a unique, yet “tried and true,” system for delivering programs better, faster, smarter, and cheaper. For the most part, this “tried and true,” system is the innovation of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the University of Florida’s (UF) Rinker School of Construction (under the direction of Dr. Edward W. Minchin). FHWA and UF refer to this system as the “2-Day Kick-Off” meeting. In large part, it’s a combination of UF’s leadership and program management research, as well as a FHWA’s eight-year nation-wide pilot. Additionally, it utilizes components of the U.S. Army’s “Command and General Staff College” (CGSC/ILE). As mentioned, based on remarkable industry successes, resulting in arguably some of the highest performing teams in the nation, the presenters highly encourage owners to critically consider conducting the 2-Day Kick-Off meeting.
Trees are in-demand in urban environments to provide benefits for urbanization. There are community tree planting projects around the world: Million Trees New York, LA, Denver, Shanghai, London, Ontario, and Trillion Trees. Many of these projects appear to be initiated as a political end allowing officials to show up on planting days for photos. The passion is at its peak around the event time, but dissipates quickly after the trees are planted. To establish planted trees, 2-5 years of water is needed depending on species & climate. This critical aftercare is typically not budgeted or planned. The survival rate of these trees depends on the care and water trees cannot get on their own. An example is Commerce City, Colorado, in 2015-2016. Surprisingly, there is more rainfall than trees need for establishment in most regions of the U.S. However, due to the limitation of the initial root ball size, field capacity (FC), and plant available water (PAW), most of the natural water is unused. The same limitation causes plants to struggle when all the PAW is used up. Irrigation is used to bridge this gap. But it can be costly, and may be unavailable. FC and PAW are intrinsic properties of most soils and cannot be increased easily. A comparison of different watering systems was tested in Commerce City, and the PAW in the heavy clay soil was the critical factor for tree survival. There are technologies that can increase PAW by increasing FC without drowning the plant roots.
Sodium Chloride, the most predominant salt used on streets for melting snow and ice, is the lubricant of the modern lifestyle in northern climates during wintry weather conditions. These same streets and parking lots are also the battleground where urban foresters strive to build green infrastructure for canopy coverage, stormwater management, and aesthetics. It is all too common to observe the damages and casualties on roadsides in spring, when plants start to display the impacts of salt through discoloration and canopy loss. At this stage, it is often too late to remedy and correct the damaged plants. The urban forestry community is aware of the issue. Many of these professionals have snow removal as part of their responsibility, requiring salts as part of standard operating procedures. This presentation uses case studies in Baltimore, Maryland, and controlled environment studies in Richmond, Virginia, to demonstrate a unique protocol of protecting plants from salt damages.
An informal ’round table’ discussion on the importance of having a vehicle replacement program and the common problems that are encountered.
This session describes the model and process followed by the City of Coppell, Texas, during the development of an enterprise-wide asset management system. Presenters will describe how the city has collected physical and condition data on its infrastructure assets including streets, water, sewer, drainage, and buildings/facilities. The presenters will then describe the implementation process of the asset management software system, along with some lessons learned from previous enterprise system implementations. Finally, the presenters will describe how Organizational Change Management (OCM) strategies have helped with the implementation process and ensure that stakeholders are committed to the success of the new systems.