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Have you ever wondered what designers and builders think about their clients or why it matters? David Skuodas works as a project manager in the owner role in the public works industry. He spent years asking vendors in the construction industry, “Why does it matter to be a good client?” Skuodas interviewed over 50 consultants, contractors, and client project managers. He asked them what differentiates a good client from a bad client and how the client affects the cost, schedule, and quality of a project. He also asked them what conditions allow them to do their best work, and conversely, what makes it difficult for them to do their jobs effectively? This presentation lets you peek behind the curtain and find out how designers and builders differentiate between good and bad clients. You will learn how client behavior affects the price and quality of the work and how designers and builders choose their clients.
Read MoreThe worst Texas winter weather in recent history occurred in February 2021, creating unexpected public works infrastructure resiliency challenges for communities large and small. Join us for a moderated discussion…
Read MoreAnalyzing an Ingham County, Michigan real-world winter weather event from the perspective of meteorology, emergency management, and a county road department. This session will consider ways of communicating information to and from the county agencies, how emergency managers are involved in a major winter event, and what needs the road department has for information and how the partnership in Ingham County fills those requirements. The expectation is for me to speak on the EM/meteorology role (I am a meteorologist and emergency manager) and someone from our county road department to speak on our interaction, most likely in 20-25 minutes for each of us.
Read MoreThe Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has a fleet of over 1,000 winter operations trucks and spends up to $60M annually on snow removal and de-icing as part of their winter operation maintenance activities. Materials for treating, contribute a significant part of that budget and the efficient application of these materials with automated solutions for managing driver workload can significantly cut down operating costs and staff turnover. This demonstration shows how INDOT and Purdue University developed an innovative calibration box and smart brine tanker to improve winter operation procedures, reduce costs and make roads safer in the winter. A critical aspect of an effective and efficient application of salt is a properly calibrated spreader system. Preliminary investigation found that trucks were offloading excess salt (around 50% more) before calibration. In the past, spreaders were often calibrated using scales to measure the weight of material off-loaded during a measured time interval. Although this method is accurate, it can be quite time consuming if scales are not on site or if material is collected on a tarp and weighed. INDOT and Purdue University developed a volumetric based calibration procedure. A bottomless calibration box was constructed out of aluminum sign backing that holds a known volume (and weight). The time-consuming aspect of calibration is the offload calibration due to determining the weight of the truck before and after offload and inputting the offloaded amount into the controller. This process can take upwards of 2 hours, but the calibration box eliminates the need for weighing the truck, allowing agencies to calibrate a truck 10 minutes or less. A set of calibration tables can also be used to allow for variance in salt moisture content and densities. Results from repeated tests showed that calibrating improved the offloading inaccuracies by 30%, which could yield a significant reduction in costs and usage.
Read MoreThe Palisade Plunge Trail project is a unique, world-class mountain biking trail route that connects the top of the Grand Mesa (10,780’ elevation) to the valley floor in the Town of Palisade (4,728’ elevation). At approximately 34 miles long and with over 6,000’ of vertical relief, The Plunge is one of a handful of similar singletrack trail routes worldwide. For almost half of its length, The Plunge traverses through areas not previously accessible to the public due to lack of trails, inaccessible terrain, watershed restrictions, and private leaseholder fencing. The Palisade Plunge is a collaborative effort between Mesa County, BLM, USFS, CPW, Town of Palisade, City of Grand Junction, Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA) and other numerous other minor stakeholders. Mesa County was elected by the stakeholders to be the primary stakeholder to handle all the design and construction for the project. The estimated annual economic impact from the Palisade Plunge Trail to the Mesa County communities is $5 million annually. All partners involved with this project have been proactively seeking to make this a demonstration project for how to proceed with both persistence and compromise to ultimately bring the vast majority of the people and organizations on-board to complete a vision of the project that begun ten years ago. Come journey with presenters as they traverse this winding, wild ride and cover some of the numerous lessons learned during the bidding and construction of this unique project.
Read MoreAs the waste stream continues to evolve, solid waste managers across the U.S. are examining different metrics to more accurately measure recycling program performance and identify areas for improvement. One metric that continues to gain appeal is the recycling capture rate, which measures the percentage of eligible recyclables recovered through the recycling program. Capture rate studies can be coupled with educational intervention to do pre- and post-program measurement. This presentation touches on study results including a 2019 study for the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), an authority serving the 1.3 million residents within the 40+ jurisdictions in Franklin County, including the City of Columbus. Of particular interest, this study is the first known to the presenters to perform a side-by-side comparison of two different methods to measure capture rates. A trending educational intervention method is to conduct multiple passbys of recycling setouts and assessing the cleanliness of the material and leaving specific feedback for the resident. This cart (or bin) monitoring approach is proving beneficial in swinging route loads that were previously being rejected to be accepted. This saves the municipality costs and keeps materials in the correct direction for processing rather than rejected and sent to landfills. Case studies and approaches will be discussed and audience participation encouraged to share their experiences and current challenges.
Read MoreThe goal of the City+Arch+River (CAR) project was to invigorate the Arch grounds and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park (Gateway Arch Grounds) by improving accessibility to everyone and expanding the park grounds and museum. Improvements included safe access from the city, creation of new spaces for events and public education, expanded museum space, additional park acreage and bicycle trails, children’s play areas, performance venues, and a lively, invigorated riverfront where locals and tourists alike will find new opportunities to learn, linger, and enjoy one of the world’s most recognizable icons. As part of the design team, CDI worked with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA) to design and manage the stormwater improvements for the park grounds, which included stormwater management and water quality design elements. While redesigning the landscape and accessibility of the Arch grounds, the overall stormwater design needed to meet the federal water quality requirements per Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), as well as the review and approval requirements of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, the local stormwater permitting and sewer agency. Additionally, stormwater quality efforts were incorporated into the design to improve the quality and visibility of the existing reflecting ponds at the Arch grounds, which prior to the reconstruction were collectors of the large volume of stormwater run-off from the park grounds.
Read MoreThe City of Plano has approximately 1,000 linear miles sewer lines and has been conducting routine inspections system using in-house crews over the last five years for 12-inch and smaller lines. These activities were tracked and logged through the city’s work order system, Cartegraph, and downloaded to our CCTV data management system, GraniteNet, but that is where the data stopped. Unless there was a significant issue, the inspection was complete and the crews went on to the next task. While this process worked well, they were was gaining very little insight into the condition of their sewer system. As part of their recent Wastewater Master Plan, they worked with their consultant to conduct a risk-based assessment (RBA) to determine the current state of their sewer infrastructure. Through the process they identified a need to use the RBA condition assetssment and criticality assessment from the Waterwater Master Plan to enhance Cartegraph to ultimately develop a prioritized work plan for crews and a business process for maximizing the results of their data. Using the age and material data already populated in Cartegraph, they built generic degradation curves for our various materials to calculate an estimated condition score. For sewer mains that already had an inspection completed, they imported the NASSCO PACP structural index from GraniteNET to determine the condition score. They were also able to track our rehabilitation work in Cartegraph and use their relining projects to reset the estimated condition score of our lines. After reviewing the data in Cartegraph and consultant’s condition assessments from the Wastewater Master Plan, the results were significantly similar and they had a high degree of confidence that their Cartegraph process was working. As they continue to consume more data sources into our assessment, they are continuing to evaluate our parameters to ensure they maximize their investments in people, technology, and infrastructure.
Read MoreCommunities have extensive GIS & Storm Sewer Modeling Data available to them. This presentation walks through how communities can utilize this data to help plan, predict, and mitigate flooding within their communities. The overall goal of the presentation is to better educate individuals on how to build resiliency to urban flooding. The City of Burnsville (26.87 sq. mi.), like many communities throughout the Minnesota Minneaplis-St.Paul Metro, have a 1D City-Wide XPSWMM model. The City wanted to upgrade their 1D model to a 2D to create a model with the highest level of accuracy for their complex storm sewer network (Burnsville is the first community within the Metro to develop a City-Wide 2D model). The 2D model allowed the City to have a better understanding of current conditions a traditional 1D model wouldn’t be able to identify (i.e. surface flow velocities, erosion susceptibility of overland flow areas, EOF capacity issues in residential areas, and showing where overland flow conveyance points are most critical). The flood rasters and associated output data was then taken and integrated into a custom built Resiliency Model evaluating the Consequence of Failure versus the Likelihood of Failure criteria. The various parameters were then weighted based on input from City staff to determine the most critical aspects of their system such that the resiliency model would take these factors (weights) into account to determine which areas are the most “critical”. This approach removed any “bias” from the evaluation process allowing the City to develop a guiding document/living model the City can use for future planning & mitigation projects. All of the processes are fully dynamic allowing the 2D model and Resiliency Analysis to be rerun to re-prioritize the zones annually.
Read MoreExamine safety, cost, liability and project timeline when raising manholes & catch basins structures to grade when repaving city streets. Look at the same four criteria for the known methods currently in practice to protecting motorist from exposed utilities and the transverse milled edge during milling and paving projects.
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