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In 2020, the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, adopted a new Stormwater Pollution Control Ordinance which included, for the first time, a prohibition on the use of pavement products containing more than 0.1% polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by weight. This ordinance change was adopted following several years of research, local monitoring, and correspondence with cities with similar prohibitions and outreach to local sealant manufacturers and other local stakeholders that this ordinance can potentially impact. The purpose of this prohibition is to reduce the amount of PAHs entering local streams from stormwater runoff with the goal to reduce in-stream PAH values below levels that are considered toxic to aquatic life. This presentation will summarize the research that led Charlotte-Mecklenburg to take this concern seriously, the results from local monitoring, and the stakeholder process used to adopt the new ordinance language.
Read MoreTo say that significant developments in pavement data collection technologies and artificial intelligence- (AI) based processing methods have taken place over the past three years is an understatement. Industry standards have not kept pace with technological advancements, and agencies attempting to procure these services have been left in a bind. While these technologies may provide better data than previous technologies, it is critical that agencies understand the benefits and limitations of these technologies—especially those implementing AI—and how best to procure the technologies. AI is a tool, not a panacea. This presentation will describe the benefits and limitations of 3D pavement imaging, AI-based data processing, and mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technologies. The attendees will learn how to best integrate data collected with these technologies into their pavement and asset management systems. Attendees will also learn how to best procure and quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) test the data from these technologies.
Read MoreAcross the country, water distribution and wastewater collection systems are reaching the end of their asset life, and creative solutions are needed to restore capacities and rehabilitate the structures cost-effectively and efficiently. Several rehabilitation tools are available such as pipe bursting, spray-on liners, and liner inserts that can be used for system rehabilitation. As many of these existing utilities are in areas that have developed greatly since their original installation, the selection of rehabilitation techniques must consider factors including access, traffic volumes, potential service disruptions to customers, impacts on the community, and cost/benefit considerations. In many instances, the familiar dig-and-replace is no longer a viable option, leaving trenchless and near trench methods as the remaining viable options.
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Each community seems to have that one spot that always has crashes when winter weather arrives, or bridge that behaves differently than all the others at night. Why is that?…
Read MoreTo meet the demand for 5G, telecommunications companies are erecting hundreds of thousands of small cell towers—often two towers per streetlight. Many cities are adopting innovative strategies to not only…
Read MoreUsing best practices, learn how to convert your fleet to a standard repair equivalency. This will allow you to properly determine the number of technicians needed to maintain your diverse…
Read MoreWith 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.
Read MoreTop 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.
Read MoreColumbus Department of Public Utilities (DPU) implemented the business case evaluation (BCE) process and avoided over $70 million in costs after seven years. The added social and environmental value of conducting BCE’s brings the cost avoidance to $100 million, and service levels, safety, and risk exposure improved. The BCE process received international recognition from the Water Services Association of Australia. It was featured in a McGraw-Hill Report, “Water Infrastructure Asset Management: Adopting Best Practices to Enable Better Investments.” A case study, which will show how BCEs are conducted and the savings that can be realized, includes examples of monetizing social and environmental factors that have no market-driven value. At PWX21, agencies discussed the difficulties of monetizing these factors. Implementation lessons will be shared, including establishing BCE policy and avoiding common implementation problems.
Read MoreTo provide accessibility under ADA guidelines, state and local government agencies are required to perform self-evaluations of their existing facilities relative to the accessibility requirements of the ADA. The public entities are then required to develop a transition plan to address any deficiencies. With 5,000 lane miles over 500 square miles in the City of Phoenix, developing a city-wide ADA Transition Plan is a significant undertaking requiring several months and millions of dollars. To understand the amount of effort needed to create a comprehensive ADA Transition Plan, the City performed a pilot project. The Title II compliant project included data collection using a vehicle-mounted, ground-based light detection and ranging (LiDAR) instrument; extraction of data into a usable geographic information system (GIS) database; and compliance analysis to identify areas for improvement. Additionally, the study defined potential options to perform ADA self-evaluation and develop a comprehensive ADA Transition Plan for the entire city.
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