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Due to climate change, cities are experiencing significant challenges due to unpredictable weather events that may impact lives in the community. A winter emergency situation in Western Canada typically arises when there is a single or multiple snow events with excessive snow, generally over 25 cm with blizzard-like conditions. These conditions cause drifting snow and poor visibility for an extended period of time. Winter events can also cause icy pavement conditions impacting normal driving and walking conditions for extended periods. Such emergency situations generally require the city to utilize their resources to full capacity in order to allow an early recovery to the pre-emergency state with new-normal conditions. The City of Regina, Saskatchewan has created a Winter Emergency Response Plan to help winter crews handle extreme conditions on account of excessive snow and ice.
Read MoreFort Collins, Colorado with over 70 inches of snowfall annually is one of only five Platinum biking communities in the United States, with intentions on being the first Diamond biking community! For Fort Collins to lead a revolution in bicycle transportation, snow and ice removal have to clean and clear these new biking facilities to allow for year-round use. This presentation highlights the challenges in maintaining and addressing the needs of a northern, high-elevation community with over 400 miles of on-road bike lanes and a robust low-stress biking network on secondary streets with special crossings at the arterial intersections. To address this challenge, new equipment and new thinking are needed to move past the car-centric snowplowing solutions of the past.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreDallas 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.
Read MoreMany 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.
Read MoreAPWAs 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.
Read MoreOver 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe Regional Traffic Signal Synchronization Project (CV Sync) is Coachella Valley Association of Government’s (CVAG) major effort to advance the development and implementation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and Smart Region Programs with an emphasis on the development of multi-jurisdictional and regional smart intersections, smart corridors, and broadband communication networks. The region will become smart cities ready through a high-speed secured communications network. This will be achieved by fitting intersections along 25 corridors with the latest advanced traffic signal controller units, cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) roadside units, ITS technologies, and a secured communication system. CVAG will be deploying connected vehicle technologies, including signal phase and timing (SPaT) and other basic safety messages via a vehicle onboard unit that will communicate with the roadway infrastructure.
Read MoreThe Margaret Turner Storm Drainage Improvement project consists of a 145-acre watershed located in northwest Charlotte, North Carolina, near Brookshire Boulevard. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) identified this area for study and improvements due to reports of road flooding and residential structure flooding in the Margaret Turner subdivision. CMSWS partnered with The Isaacs Group P.C. to complete the planning study, design, public outreach, and construction administration services. Drainage improvements within the project area included a 13-foot by 4-foot reinforced concrete box culvert, a 42-inch pipe culvert, and natural channel improvements. Due to the space constraints, a detailed shoring plan for storm drainage construction was developed to protect existing infrastructure and install the new system. The design included extensive relocation of existing utilities and utility coordination during construction to reduce the disruption of services to the residents in the neighborhood.
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