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While the potential for utility delays is a well-known risk for all municipal capital projects, how you tackle these risks can have monumental impacts on the operational efficiencies of utility owners as well as the municipality. At the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, their roadway infrastructure Capital Investment Plan is funded every two years with approximately $100MM, accounting for 150-200 active capital roadway projects. The projects’ scopes vary, but the one constant is that the private utility providers—electric, gas, and telecommunications—will have unavoidable project impacts in most of the projects. In this session, staff from the City of Charlotte, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and AT&T will share their approach, intentions, best practices, lessons learned, and areas of concern in their quest to achieve success for their organizations and partnership.
Read MoreThe International Public Works Director Roundtable is an annual interactive session that targets public works directors (PWDs) or their equivalent across North America. Using the tagline “Where Directors Go to Grow” and their logo, organizers plan to build on the successes in Toronto, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Orlando, Kansas City, and Seattle. The International Public Works Director Roundtables continuously rank as one of the most popular and highest-rated sessions each year. This session is designed to be participatory and maximize engagement with all the directors present. Directors are seated at roundtables encouraging interaction with each other. This session enables directors from across the world to network and learn from each other’s experiences.
Read MoreOne of the core jobs of the fleet manager is to make sure fleet assets are provided in a cost-effective, efficient manner. Having a solid, reliable basis for determining those…
Read MoreThis CLL will look at emerging technology for signal control systems that can identify bike and pedestrians’ movements and log this data both locally and in the cloud. The session…
Read MoreWhen snowflakes fly residents get worried. “Can I make it home?” “Where are the plows?” “When are they going to plow my street?” Clear and effective communication keeps residents informed and eases the anxiety that winter storms bring. In this session the speaker will demonstrate the importance of effective policy and procedure, and how that helps manage information. Using his own experience, the speaker will make the session practical by focusing on road condition information during a winter storm. He will lead a discussion regarding effective channels for distributing information to the public; show how his county uses SharePoint to maintain updated road condition information, and describe how using low-cost software can empower staff and others to collect road information.
Read MoreHigh Friction Surface treatments include a two-part application of an epoxy binder followed with placement of rough, hard, and durable aggregates on an existing roadway surface. These treatments reduce roadway departure accidents by increasing surface friction. Promoted by PennDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, Allegheny County has used this treatment for the past few years and found it is a cost-effective safety treatment for strategic locations on roadways where friction needs to be maximized (such as steep grades or sharp horizontal curves). It provides texture to existing concrete or asphalt surfaces without sacrificing uniformity or rideability. Other public works agencies may find this treatment has value for their own assets.
Read MoreWhether proposing infrastructure project budgets, relaying critical construction information to stakeholders, or sharing emergency updates to residents, gaining community support and communicating to that community is a key component of a successful public works department. In this session, our presenters will discuss how thought-out and innovative communication plans are vital to the perception of public works departments and community support. Reviewing two case studies, the speakers will discuss outreach and branding strategies used for the City of Gloucester’s Department of Public Works and the Town of Lexington’s Downtown Revitalization Project, sharing how consistent branding and messaging has not only streamlined communication to the public but how these efforts have positively impacted the perception of public works professionals and the imperative work they do.
Read MoreCulture is often used to describe creating a positive work environment. But how is a good culture developed? Is employee engagement and appreciation enough? A leader has to take risks and apply creative ways to focus on morale, retention, and attraction of employees. Engaging employees to help management develop the foundation of a positive culture through a team-building exercise provides instant buy-in. Simply, the employees defined a culture they would like for management, and the speaker guided them to create the foundation. The benefit of the foundation exercise is that participants will leave with ideas that will spark creative thinking, employee engagement, and workforce development.
Read MoreAre you frustrated with your current performance at work? How about your boss? Are you judging someone on your team because you don’t believe they are motivated to get the job done? How about your team? Is it just not functioning the way you would like it to function? When it comes to work, we all have our gifts and natural talents that give us energy. The Working Genius model helps to identify those gifts and natural abilities that help us to maximize our satisfaction and success at work. Don’t think of this as a personality model but more of a ”productivity model” that consists of six necessary ingredients for success. The goal is to see where you and your teammates fit into the model to maximize everyone’s satisfaction and success in the work they do every day.
Read MoreIntelligent transportation systems (ITS) infrastructure impacts on operations and maintenance are on several levels, including the maintenance and operation demand, staffing required, and the cost to ensure the new systems continue to operate. Traffic engineering staff are being asked to do more than ever as fiber communications, cameras, sensors, and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) are being deployed. Even traditional maintenance has taken on an increased urgency when sensors’ operational uptime is being pushed to 100%. New skills and expertise are needed to maintain and operate new communications, networks, and audio-visual assets. Traditional traffic engineering tasks like signal timing are more complex. Budgeting considerations to keep up with the new systems and ensuring the latest technologies can be accommodated are being challenged as well. Jurisdictions should focus on the operation and maintenance of both new and legacy systems to ensure efficient and cost-effective results for the public.
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