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Presented by the APWA Government Affairs Committee The 117th Congress was sworn into office in early January 2021, and is well underway. Infrastructure has been a ‘hot topic’ for Congress and APWA’s public policy priorities for this session of Congress are all infrastructure related. Come and receive a current update from the APWA Government Affairs team about happenings in Congress related to APWA’s public policy priorities of Surface Transportation Reauthorization, Water Resiliency, and Emergency Management. On September 30, 2021 the current surface transportation law will expire, and so will the National Flood Insurance Program. Further, this year multiple water infrastructure bills have been introduced, and regulatory matters such as the Lead and Copper Rule and Waters of the US are under review, and the potential health impacts of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of concern. Additionally, APWA members and staff have been diligent about increasing the awareness and recognition by lawmakers of public works professionals as first responders and key players in planning, mitigating, and recovering from disaster situations. APWA’s Government Affairs efforts are strong–come hear the latest legislative updates!
Read MoreTransportation infrastructure asset management has mostly focused on pavement, bridges, and tunnels. However, traffic signals, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), traffic signs and markings, roadway lighting, guardrails, and barriers are all essential to the safety, mobility, accessibility, and efficiency of the surface transportation network. Furthermore, they will be critical to the reliable functioning of the rapidly evolving Connected/Autonomous Vehicle (C/AV) systems. Many newer vehicles already have limited capabilities for C/AV. Maintenance of these various elements will be even more important as the devices will need to be kept in very good functional condition. Additionally, as the technology rapidly advances, new installations, more frequent maintenance, and upgrades will be necessary to ensure optimum performance. The costs associated with these functions will rise significantly. As funding for maintenance of existing devices and systems has never been sufficient, state and local agencies must be able to demonstrate and justify the need for increased maintenance and replacement. A comprehensive asset management program that links databases of attributes, condition, and expected life-cycle with a work management system detailing maintenance and repairs is crucial. The data provides accurate information as to the scope and overall condition of the various installations, summary of costs over time, projection of scheduled replacements/upgrades, and estimations of future expenditures based on these needs. This presentation examines the challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining a practical, feasible asset management program for signals, ITS, signs, markings, lights, and guardrails. It is based on the presenter’s article in the July, 2020 APWA Reporter. The presenter has 35 years experience in asset management as a Traffic Operations Manager and Public Works Superintendent.
Read MoreMissouri American Water Company is a major water supplier in the St. Louis metro area and at the center of the distribution system is one of the most critical pump stations not only in Missouri, but in the entire American Water network—the Stratmann Pump Station. The Stratmann Pump Station was originally constructed in 1926 with an expansion in 1954. Because of the critical nature of the station, its age and condition, and an inability to get replacement parts for much of the equipment, Missouri American Water Company elected to replace the pump station in its entirety as quickly as possible. The design and construction of the new pump station was developed with a focus on reliability, operations, redundancy, and flexibility with significant input from Missouri American staff. After utilizing the combined expertise of both an engineer and contractor for the planning phase and to develop a conceptual design, the Design-Build project delivery system was used to design, permit, and construct the new 70 MGD pump station. This approach allowed for design and construction to be conducted quickly, developing many separate construction packages in a sequence that facilitated keeping the existing pump station and two 11 million gallon storage tanks operational, and to also to acquire 18 permits and construct the pump station in a critical path. Continuous communications between the Design-Build team and the Owner allowed for modifications to the original concepts and valuable Owner input throughout the entire project, allowing Missouri American to prioritize and optimize the improvements while maintaining the project budget.
Read MoreWith today’s ever-shrinking budgets, available resources, and increasing expectations, it is essential for Public Works managers and Supervisors to orchestrate a plan and schedule to make best use of their limited resources and to efficiently and effectively manage resources. The key is to not let the work control you but rather, to control the work through proactive planning and scheduling. Two agencies utilize technology and systems as well as age old methods to plan and schedule their maintenance work. This allows them to properly maintain their assets, prioritize work and obtain necessary resources.
Read MoreHave you been thinking about having a connected and/or automated vehicle pilot in your jurisdiction? If so, this program is for you. This program will provide participants with an overall…
Read MoreThe Weather Data Environment (WxDE) is a comprehensive system for managing a national road weather observation database available to the road weather community for operations and research. The system manages Road Weather Information System(RWIS) observation data for States, Cities, Counties, and MPOs with the ultimate objective of being a shared source for all RWIS data nationally. The WxDE provides tools for acquiring quality-checked road weather data and forecasts from various (RWIS) in differing data formats, and data transfer protocols. The WxDE supports subscriptions for access to real-time data in near real time. This access provides data for winter operation decision support, connected vehicle research, application development and pilot project demonstrations. Success of the WxDE is predicated on continuous collaboration between the contributors and the users of the data. Weather events do not happen within individual states or county borders. By providing access to shared road weather data from across the nation, decision support solutions used by maintenance operators can be more efficient and effective. The WxDE is a critical tool for the road weather community as we continue to advance road weather research and operations in pursuit of our ultimate goal of achieving the highest levels of safety, mobility and productivity on the nation’s surface transportation system. This presentation will discuss in detail the WxDE in its current form, including operations and research applications. The discussion will include a scenario based step by step approach to integrating road weather data into any city or county road weather management program and highlight the value to the program. It will also demonstrate how the WxDE fits into a larger framework of Non-Recurring Event data as part of a comprehensive Transportation System Management Operation (TSMO) plan.
Read MoreIn this educational session, you will meet the new National LTAP Association President and hear from a panel of Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Center Directors. The partnership between APWA and the NLTAPA has grown stronger over time and we will share with you many ways the LTAP centers are making a difference for local transportation agencies. You will also receive some resources to take back to your agency.
Read MoreAs many cities across the country have struggled to meet changing recycling market conditions, the City of Phoenix found a solution to this issue through a public and private partnership. This partnership was established to assist with the upgrade of the North Gateway MRF to ensure that the city was able to meet new industry standards, which includes more stringent commodity specifications (residual requirements) and change in inbound material composition. The North Gateway Transfer Station (NGTS) processes recyclables from North Phoenix, the City of Peoria, and the City of Prescott. The $4.5 million upgrade to this facility was funded by a $3 million no-interest loan from the Closed Loop Fund, $1 million from the City of Peoria, and the remainder was covered by city funds. Upgrades to NGTS began in September 2019 and concluded in December 2019. Equipment upgrades at the facility included two new anti-wrap disk screens, two new optical sorters, a drum feeder, expansion to the pre-sort line, critical infrastructure upgrades to the electrical and fire life safety systems, and a ballistic separator. Benefits from the upgrade include a substantial improvement of the capture of glass, paper, PET, OCC and aluminum; the ability to achieve tighter material quality specifications; 50% improvement in MRF throughput (processing speed); increased inbound processing capacity due to increased throughput; reduced residuals sent to landfill; the ability to temporarily process the City of Scottsdale’s recyclables since their MRF burned down in 2019; the ability to temporarily shoulder recyclables from 27th Avenue transfer station as this MRF underwent baler replacements over two weeks; and the ability to process more fiber products due to the increased demand of cardboard and paper during the COVID shutdown. None of these benefits would have been possible without the upgrades.
Read MoreIn this Point-Counter-Point debate-style presentation, two traffic operations engineers will explain why roundabouts are a leading design solution versus why traffic signals rule the intersection control world! Each side will present data on traffic volumes, traffic flow, safety, operations and maintenance, expandability and affordability for roundabouts in series versus intelligent traffic signal corridors. They report, you decide, in the Great Intersection Debate of PWX 2021.
Read MoreIn an era of data-driven decision-making, it is easy acquire data about so many things. The entire discipline of asset management is predicated on first acquiring condition data about your organization's infrastructure assets. But what about our most important asset, the people that do the work of public works? How do we know what our employees think of their own workplace? How do they feel about it? Find out how to measure the morale of your workgroup with a simple survey that directly informs management of what our co-workers think and feel about the workplace. Designed around Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the survey results instruct the manager on the best next step to take to improve morale in the workgroup.
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