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In January of 2016, Mayor Sylvester Turner challenged the Houston Public Works (HPW) Transportation and Drainage Operations (TDO) to assess and repair all potholes reported by the next business day. The number of reported potholes increased by more than 30% shortly after Mayor Turner’s inauguration. HPW employees rose to the challenge and have been successful filling 98% of potholes by the next business day. Presenters will explain HPW’s potholes problems, demonstrating what improvements were made to procedures, technology, scheduling & personnel. HPW field operation staff will share with you what was done differently to resolve this headline-making news items: repairs over 25 SF are “Not-a-Pothole” and referred as asphalt skin-patches; in-house crews perform partial and full depth skin-patch repairs on asphalt streets; in-House crews perform asphalt patches on concrete streets; the pothole and patch repairs are intended to be as durable as possible; HPW centralized all forces from four quadrants to one primary location; offered crews additional pick-up locations for more efficient travel time to problem locations; utilized latest iPad to report and manage most of the work order; the city boosted employee morale by engaging employees and front-line supervisors in weekly meetings in regard to process improvement efforts; implemented QA/QC group to ensure the accuracy of all data recorded; created Pothole Action Plan; implemented new SOP’s in addition to new techniques and cost-effective tactics without costing taxpayers any additional money; the pothole program includes “Next Business Day Potholes” and “Pro-Active Potholes” that are not reported by citizens but filled by operations & maintenance crews while on-site typically covering intersection-to-intersection potholes; and the creation of a dedicated website covering all aspects of the program to educate the public.
Read MoreSince the boom in the first decade of this century collapsed into the great recession, the public works industry has seen a mighty blow to its workforce and resource levels. While the recovery is underway and in full swing, a large number of capable personnel have left the industry never to return. Now more than ever, the public works industry needs good leadership. That doesn’t mean people with lots of experience who ascend to higher positions in our organizations because it’s their turn either. It means people who are willing to lead, no matter their position or title. Leader Under Construction examines a variety of key characteristics, skills and attributes a good leader must have or develop, relating those to the development of a construction project. Participants in Leader Under Construction progress through their leadership development from what makes for a solid leadership foundation, through the things a leader must do to form/frame themselves properly, finally moving into the finishing touches that ensure a leader stays sharp. Foundation, Forming/Framing, Finishing. Just like a building, a roadway, or a pipeline, you can’t stand the test of time if each step of the process isn’t done right. But that isn’t the end. Just like a construction project, once a leader is built, they must maintain those attributes and skills if they want to continue on in peak condition. Maintenance isn’t just for pavement. Attendees at this session will be challenged to create a leadership development plan. The foundation for this plan will be discussed during the presentation, but it will be up to each person to form/frame and finish it on their own! Good leadership starts with self-leadership, and developing better leaders creates stronger, more productive, more profitable organizations. Become a Leader Under Construction and start your journey toward good leadership.
Read MorePortland, Maine, began making significant investments in green infrastructure (GI) in the early 2000s and has since installed nearly 150 GI features throughout the city. In a decade plus of installing and maintaining these systems, Portland has learned important lessons about which systems work and how best to maintain them. Portland’s experience offers insights applicable to many other communities as they build and invest in their stormwater infrastructure programs. Portland was proactive in developing GI installations and linkage to clear maintenance procedures. In 2014, the city hired contractors that specialize in maintenance of stormwater control measures to inventory assets, develop operations and maintenance protocols, and to inspect a subset of systems. Today most GI maintenance is subcontracted to skilled contractors and inspection and maintenance cycles continue to increase to accommodate trash, sedimentation, winter damage and other impacts. Portland’s experience shows that maintaining GI is different. It requires skills and knowledge that current staff may not have—staff who manage buried pipes may not be good gardeners. GI maintenance also requires significant effort. Understanding the level of effort, the necessary frequency of maintenance visits, and the different kinds of maintenance each feature requires is critical. This presentation tells the story of the development of Portland’s GI program, the evolution of its maintenance practices, and how past experience is shaping future approaches. Through specific examples, it encourages attendees to think about the unexpected issues they may encounter as they develop their own GI projects, particularly in colder climates. And it offers specific guidance based on lessons learned from more than a decade of hands-on management of an extensive GI program.
Read MoreEfficient stormwater asset management is crucial to public safety as well as meeting regulatory compliance, but the cost and effort of conducting field inspections and collecting field data is an ongoing challenge for municipalities. Radio frequency Identification (RFID) technology is rapidly becoming the solution to bridging the gaps in field data collection workflows. Adam Schleicher, Director of Public Services for the City of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin will discuss their deployment of RFID marking for stormwater assets in combination with mobile data collection. This method reduces the time, cost and errors in field data inspections and automatically creates an audit trail for regulatory compliance.
Read MoreSummary GPS/AVL is no longer considered “nice to have.” Whether government agencies are looking to mitigate liability, reduce costs, or increase accountability and transparency; GPS/AVL systems are slowly becoming a staple in public works. This presentation takes real world lessons from agencies who have successfully implemented a telematics solution, describes challenges and obstacles they faced, and shows how they reached their goals. The presentation focuses around three key business practices: aligning your solution with your agency’s key service level indicators, ensuring you obtain buy-in from all affected groups, and preparing your agency and resources to manage the changes that come with implementing new technology. Ensure the solution your stakeholders select is adopted and provides a good return on investment.
Read MorePresented by the Emerging Leaders Academy 2020-2021 Class Study remote work policies, procedures, and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop best practices which help organizations optimize their telework process.
Read MoreCity infrastructure such as buildings, playing fields, and roadway improvements benefit the community significantly, but the responsibility to fund the improvements seems to always fall on the shoulders of the city agency only. However, through strategic thinking and innovative win-win partnerships with stakeholders who benefit from these infrastructure improvements, agencies have the opportunity and ability to partner and obtain outside financial contributions towards these improvements. “Real world” experience examples of such financial partnership opportunities were identified, negotiated and implemented on a street resurfacing project, street widening project, cross walk improvements, soccer field synthetic turf and field fencing replacement project, and improvements to an iconic building at the end of beach pier will be shared. The audience will be able to benefit form the lessons learned perspective in the identification of opportunities for partnership, partnership outreach, negotiations, and implementation process. Attendees will be able to learn how to engage and maintain the communication with the partnership agencies throughout the process to ensure a successful relationship and outcome.
Read MorePer- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are manmade chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, and others; manufactured and used around the United States since the ‘40s. PFAS are found in water-repellent, wrinkle-free,…
Read MoreLearn how Public Works departments are utilizing data to improve their winter maintenance performance. In this session we will discuss how agencies are using forecast information, Road Weather Information System…
Read MoreIn the world of winter maintenance a wrong weather forecast is much more than just a punch line, it causes a lot of stress, and sometimes results in bad decisions by winter maintenance supervisors. Accepting wrong weather forecasts is one way to handle the problem, making fun of the meteorologist is another, but it still does not improve your situation. Instead, there are things you can do to help you understand when a forecast might go wrong hours, maybe even days, before the storm. This discussion will talk about simple things you can do to understand how to still make good decisions even when the forecast is not working out. Such as looking at the time between the storm and the forecast can help you with deciding how much weight to give a forecast. Or how to spot the signs of a model only created forecast, and what pitfalls that can cause you. Today, the internet tries to scare us with an image from a model showing a storm 10 days away, and it gets everyone talking including those above you. What should you do about something like that? How do you explain your plan to everyone, up and down, how you are handling the situation so it works out in the end. Hopefully these tips will provide you the ability to sift through all the weather noise and continue to use a weather forecast to make your decisions easier. And yes, not all forecasts are right, but with these tips you can hopefully identify a potential wrong forecast before you fall victim to it.
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