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The City of Durham, North Carolina, decided to go digital with waste and recycling communications in 2009, a big move that helps Solid Waste Management share information and make routes scalable for urban growth. Serving about 78,000 total households, the City recently conducted a reroute that changed collection days for roughly a quarter of them. They used the digital communication platform, Durham Rollout, in concert with mailings to educate residents, resulting in lower-than-expected call volumes to Durham One Call, the city’s information service. In addition, the City recently revamped its bulky collection service program from a model that required crews to drive the city and scan for large items on the curbside, to a fully online, self-service model that allows residents to schedule the pick-ups. The City of Durham successfully uses digital tools to create room for growth, provide enhanced services, and keep residents informed about changes in service delivery and programs.
Read MoreThe most forward-thinking organizations are making strategic investments in artificial intelligence (AI), especially machine learning, using location data as the connective thread to automate processes, improve predictive modeling, and gain operational efficiency. Public works organizations already use a geographic information system (GIS) to uncover hidden patterns, gain crucial insights, and provide the best government services for citizens. Now, the benefits of GIS can be accelerated with artificial intelligence and machine learning. This session will provide an overview of GeoAI and show examples of how public works agencies are using it to optimize snow and ice management, automate data collection, prioritize maintenance of infrastructure, identify areas of blight or homelessness, and allocate resources based on the greatest need.
Read MoreThe objective of this session is to facilitate a technology exchange among international public works officials and to discuss and promote innovative public works technologies, operations, and best practices in the field of public works. The expectation is that APWA chapters will have a better understanding of international issues and approaches the international community has used to meet various public works challenges. These challenges have placed new demands upon implementing sustainable and resilient solutions. In engineering, construction, and maintenance, resilience has been defined as the ability to absorb or avoid damage without suffering complete failure. But a more comprehensive definition is that it is the ability to respond, absorb, and adapt to, as well as recover from, a disruptive event. Resilience is about how systems perform, not just about how they are or remain safe.
Read MoreGiven the complexity of field conditions, some aspects of liquid performance may seem to be a “black box,” and at times it can be difficult to know how to best use them based upon field experience alone. This challenge is increased by the fact that we use liquids in a variety of ways, from anti-icing to pre-wetting to direct liquid application (DLA) deicing, and liquids perform differently depending on the application. This presentation will show how we can apply the basic science of liquid deicers to complement our field-based knowledge to better select the right liquid and rate for different conditions and application types. Topics will include how liquids perform differently in anti-icing, pre-wetting, and DLA; the important liquid properties for these different types of application; how we can utilize freezing point curves as powerful tools to predict liquid performance; and how we can apply the basic science to guide the use and expectations of brine additives and blends.
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 MoreManagers of public spaces need to share best practices and network to stay current with trends and technological updates for continuous improvement in operational efficiencies and sustainability efforts. Designed to…
Read MoreThis session will inform participants regarding options and opportunities available to initiate a liquids operation into their current winter maintenance plan. Starting from the ground up is somewhat difficult without some tips and understanding of where one might go or end up when looking at implementing liquids into an operation. Class subject matter will consist of brine production, application equipment, calibration, record keeping, and outside information or sources utilized to assist in implementing a liquids program. Further information will be provided on the growth of the City of Waconia’s agency liquids operation to blending and on-demand liquid production and blending.
Read MoreThroughout our careers most of us change positions and roles numerous times. Adapting to new challenges, responsibilities, and authority are keys to successfully navigating one’s career. Progressing from technical positions into leadership roles can be the most challenging change of all. As Rick Rigsby states, leadership is about combining technical knowledge and wisdom to grow your impact. During our careers, we must learn from those who came before us and then be prepared to pass on our wisdom to the next generation. This presentation will focus on two long-time public works professionals who have greatly impacted one another’s careers. Learn how a now retired Baby Boomer and a Generation X Leader supported, collaborated, mentored and then reverse-mentored each other to help grow their influence in the public works field.
Read MoreTypical planning approaches for municipal stormwater projects often include gathering significant field data, developing complex models, and extensive documentation regarding existing conditions and potential solutions. This presentation will explore a recent pilot project executed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services that employed available geographic information system (GIS) data and abridged the modeling and reporting process. The results of the effort were provided in a decision dashboard to assist stakeholders in identifying and prioritizing projects. It will also outline the advantages and pitfalls of this approach and highlight a few of the design projects developed from this study.
Read MoreThe City of Raleigh in North Carolina has recently undertaken an innovative implementation of a Pavement Management System using automated data collection (ADC) to identify crack deterioration for input to the pavement management system (PMS). Unlike the traditional methods, the City is adopting a new methodology to measure crack density calculated as crack length in linear feet per square yard for use in the pavement management system. More specifically, these crack densities are measured for short data collection segments (approximately six feet) per transverse zone (as defined in AASHTO R-85). This project helped in the development of the new ASTM Standard Practice for Generating Pavement Surface Cracking Indices from Digital Images (E3303-21), which will aid others in future ADC initiatives. The presentation will describe this new and forward-thinking data collection and subsequent pavement management methodology so that other interested agencies can look into adopting ADC to obtain more accurate and repeatable data in the future.
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