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For the City of Houston, maintaining and updating school times for over 1,400 individual flashing school zone beacons is a major task. The City must physically touch each beacon at least twice a year to do preventative maintenance, and the process can take weeks. Installing new technology allows changing beacon times during the school year to become a remote process using cellular communications. This Texas-size flasher project with built-in artificial intelligence will be the largest installation that provides connectivity between the smart device and the traveling public via a smartphone app. With no downtime or negative impact to any school zone flasher schedule during the project, the City will become more efficient and proactive in maintaining the beacons. For additional information, please go to: https://houstontx.gov/visionzero/
Read MoreIn 2019, the Austin Public Works Department launched PWstat, a monthly executive reporting meeting that provides an overview of organizational health and an opportunity for the executive team to provide organizational clarity to participants. PWstat combines dashboards, presentations, and storytelling to help leaders and staff make more informed decisions about resources, operations, and more. By infusing data into all levels of the organization, PWstat has sparked a cultural shift and helped improve performance in Austin Public Works, introducing a new level of accountability in meeting annual commitments and expected service delivery to the community. Staff at all levels, from field crews to executives, are now more enthusiastic about performance measurement and better informed. This session will provide information about how Austin implemented PWstat and how to develop a similar program in your organization.
Read MoreThe Town Creek Culvert Project addresses a variety of water quantity and quality issues associated with a failing stormwater conveyance system draining 308.6 acres. This conveyance system, composed of brick and concrete installed before the 1930s, only passed the two-year storm event without flooding significant businesses within Uptown Greenville, N.C. To bring this system up to a 25-year level of service (LOS), the City of Greenville invested over $32 million to construct approximately 306 linear feet (LF) of 84-inch reinforced concrete pipe (RCP) and 1,943 LF of 10’X8’ reinforced concrete box culvert (RCBC) in a highly urbanized core. In addition to upsizing the existing storm drainage system, this project also offers significant water quality benefits by installing several stormwater control measures (SCMs), including a wetland, the largest regenerative stormwater conveyance system in the state, permeable pavement, and a bioretention area. Cumulatively, these SCMs are expected to remove up to 250 pounds Nitrogen /year in a highly impervious watershed.
Read MoreTraffic incidents caused by wrecks, breakdowns, hazards in the road and weather events happen every day. These incidents result in injuries, fatalities, billions of dollars of damages, and delays in travel. They also create great risk to responders from all disciplines. The lack of standard protocols, coordination, and communication among responders from police, fire, EMS, towing and public transportation agencies has caused major hindrances to safe, quick clearance. FHWA created this multi-disciplinary TIM Responder course to address these problems. If your agency deals with traffic incidents, this workshop is for you.
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Read MoreA panel discussion focused on a current hot topic, exploring workforce innovations in public works. Panelists will delve into what they have been doing to address current workforce challenges, including…
Read MoreUsing a drone is the fastest available way to examine a project area or construction site and provides real-time data gathering and image generation. Using drones through each stage of…
Read MoreOn behalf of the Utilities and Public Rights-of-Way (UPROW) Committee, the presenters will present a “Dare to Ask” session discussing lessons learned from UPROW projects and management that didn’t go…
Read MorePublic works agencies across the U.S. have been impacted by the steps taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. This session shares how agencies have been impacted and the steps taken to address those impacts. Results of interviews before and after the 2020-21 winter will be presented, which determined the impact of budget changes, furlough programs, hiring freezes, social distancing, and quarantine guidelines. One of the major themes in the initial interviews was uncertainty as to what exactly the impacts would be. It was unknown, for example, whether plow operators would be among the first to receive vaccines when available. Many had taken steps to reduce the size of working teams, to limit impacts in case of infections, but all were considering how to handle operations if they lost a sizeable portion of their operations staff during winter due to the virus.
Read MoreAccurate equipment calibration is a cornerstone best management practice for winter maintenance operations. Yet, many agencies do not recognize or understand its value. Building on the first session in this two-part series for a first-hand account to understanding the “What” and the “Why” of calibration, this session discusses the “How” to accurately calibrate offering both understanding and resources required to ensure success.
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