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Summary 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.
Read MoreWater and wastewater facility operators face mounting challenges as climate change alters weather patterns across the globe, resulting in increased flood risk and other hazards. This presentation outlines lessons learned from St. Charles, Missouri, where wastewater treatment facility operators faced off with record rainfall and consequent flooding in the spring of 2019. By leveraging employee experience, safety and hazard training, and collaboration with engineers and city stakeholders, the team was able to keep two wastewater treatment facilities online and operating safely. The presentation delivers practical, adaptable information to operators, facility managers, and water district/public works directors as they prepare their own resiliency and flood preparation strategies, whether they’re on the coast, in the Midwest, or elsewhere. Speakers will share their insights on how safety protocols, technology, and operator ingenuity combined to improve short-term outcomes in St. Charles and inform long-term emergency planning. Every flood event is different, making flexibility the most important part of navigating this emergency. Operations staff was able to leverage previous experience to prepare, taking steps such as monitoring river conditions; inventorying and stocking up on chemicals and other critical supplies—ensuring availability and accessibility for treatment facilities and pump stations, and identifying access, logistics, and remote operation alternatives in case any of these facilities became inaccessible. The team had contingency plans for several possible scenarios. The presentation focuses on communication between operators, city stakeholders, engineers, and vendors that ensured that all were on the same page, regardless of how the flood behaved. Documentation also proved critical in the aftermath and the presentation will address those outcomes and lessons learned about data collection and record keeping, especially in the context of a FEMA audit.
Read MorePublic works departments, with the main objective of cost-effectively optimizing resources (labor, equipment, materials, contracts, and assets), must constantly decide between the option of in-house versus outsourced labor. The benefits and costs of outsourced vs. in-house labor will be discussed in this presentation with specific advice regarding when to outsource and when to stay internal. Some specific factors integral to any in-house vs. outsourcing decision that will be mentioned include cost savings, improved service, lack of equipment, staff limitations, technical expertise, contractor availability, work monitoring, emergency repairs, and labor unions. Formulas for comparing internal costs and contractor costs will also be discussed.
Read MoreThe City of Joliet, the third largest city in Illinois, serves a population of approximately 150,000. Joliet’s existing water source, the deep groundwater aquifer, will not be able to meet the city’s maximum day water demands (estimated at 30 MGD) by the year 2030. Therefore, Joliet went in search of a cost‐effective, sustainable alternative water source for the City of Joliet and, possibly, the region. Joliet began Alternate Water Supply Source Study in July 2018, beginning with fourteen water source alternatives covering the full range of possible water sources from groundwater, rivers, and Lake Michigan. The first phase was completed in January 2019 and recommended four alternatives for further evaluation in 2019 as feasible alternative water sources. In January 2020, the City Council selected Lake Michigan Water as the City’s new water source. The City Council elected to move forward with further evaluation of two Lake Michigan alternatives in 2020: Lake Michigan – Chicago Department of Water Management: Purchasing treated Lake Michigan Water from the Chicago and building the necessary infrastructure to pump and transmit treated drinking water approximately 30 miles from Chicago to Joliet ($550 million construction cost for Joliet alone); Lake Michigan – New Indiana Intake: Constructing a new raw water intake in Lake Michigan along the Indiana shoreline as well as pumping facilities and transmission mains to bring raw water approximately 47 miles to the Joliet for surface water treatment and distribution ($900 million construction cost for Joliet alone). The 2020 Evaluation is focused on refining the two alternatives and providing updated costs to the City Council to allow for a final decision on the alternative water source by the end of 2020, after which the program will proceed into Preliminary Design in 2021. Final Design is anticipated between 2022 and 2024, with a 5-year construction timeframe anticipated between 2025 and 2030.
Read MorePublic works agencies typically have access to a mountain of GIS data from various sources. But often, the data is stagnant, not maintained, and not available in a useful way for the decision makers that need it the most. This presentation discusses how to use that GIS data in implementing risk management (asset management) processes that help agencies make better, more educated decisions on maintaining and replacing critical assets in their infrastructure systems. How can a manager decide which streets to rehab when 40 of them have the same condition assessment? How can an organization keep from siloing projects in ways that causes rework when a new water line replacement project tears up pavement that was just overlayed last year? This presentation answers those questions and more with a deep dive into using complex GIS data in simple ways to implement industry-standard risk management procedures. The presentation also discusses risk management principals such as likelihood of failure and consequence of failure and how these concepts can be applied using GIS data. The speaker will address how to navigate the endless amount of data and how that data can be consolidated to develop wholistic capital improvement project lists that cross departments and even agencies. Examples will be included to visually show how GIS mapping can be used by staff with no capabilities in GIS software and what tools can be provided to make the data usable manageable. Attendees will leave the presentation with the understanding of what their GIS data can do for them in effectively managing risk across all assets in their organization.
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