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HPW’s Emergency Management Program is built on the Emergency Management cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. During responses, HPW provides life safety, incident stability, and property protection operational and tactical support to the Houston Fire Department (HFD), Houston Police Department (HPD), Mayor’s Office of Special Events (MOSE), Health Department, Department of Neighborhoods, Solid Waste, and other various city, county, state, and federal agencies. The “other first responder” community is also maintained by relationships. It takes time to develop and commitment to maintain these relationships. To establish trust within the first responder community, we must actively reach out to our partners in emergency management. HPW will demonstrate their response capabilities including heavy and specialized equipment (along w/video clips), traffic control devices, and response trained personnel; and discuss the importance and benefits of identifying, coordinating, training, and exercising with key response stakeholders. Currently, HPW hired a full-time HPW-Emergency Management Coordinator. Currently, HPW is in the process of issuing a UAS (unmanned aerial system) contract which includes emergency response support services. This UAS contract will allow insight into hard to reach areas that could be flooded and enhance information and safety without putting boots on the ground. In last few years, HPW has supported and responded to natural disasters including tropical cyclones and floods; planned special events like the World Series, Houston Marathon, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, VIP and Presidential visits; and supported other life safety and incident stability operations during structural fires and technical rescues. HPW will demonstrate how and why Public Works Departments are the Other First Responder.
Read MoreCOVID-19 has impacted our entire country and the world. Many businesses, organizations, and governmental agencies have shifted to working in a virtual environment or have been required to shut down to minimize the spread. However, public works operations have continued to provide their essential functions to maintain our infrastructure, whether streets, storm water maintenance, water utilities, sewer operations, traffic control devices, or maintaining government buildings, including those used by the public. This session discusses the various strategies (PPE, use of technology, minimizing contact) to ensure employee’s safety adopted by public works agencies throughout the country to respond to the pandemic. Presenters will also discuss some positive benefits this situation has created such as expedited technology usage in public works that has allowed more efficiency and impact to services provided. Pandemics and natural disasters, like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes, demonstrate that public works professionals are first responders and are vital to our society. These dedicated employees have had to adjust and update how they do work, what resources they use, and how they communicate in a short period of time. Public works staff have kept working in operations while managing COVID-19 concerns and risks, which has allowed our supplies, emergency response, and commerce to keep flowing. They have also permitted residents and businesses to have clean water and disposal of liquid and solid waste, safe streets to drive on, and facilities to use. They have accepted new responsibilities and are able to adapt quickly. Public works has again shown as always, to be first to respond and last to leave. This COVID-19 crisis shows just how public works have adapted and provided necessary support to keep infrastructure functioning for citizens, users, and business in this most challenging time. Based on article published in APWA Reporter.
Read MoreAt the conclusion of this session, participants will be better able to create fleet management RFPs that will adequately assess potential fleet management partners as good fits–not just now, but for the long haul, including the top 5 capabilities participants should make sure to ask for in a fleet management platform in 2021. Participants will also learn to evaluate fleet solutions across departments–such as waste management, seasonal maintenance, and streets–so that a new partner can be selected that addresses the whole municipality’s needs vs. siloed solutions or a patchwork of platforms. Finally, participants will discover how to analyze the contract(s) of their current fleet management vendor(s), so that a transition can be made as cost-effectively and painlessly as possible
Read MoreBroomfield, Colorado, has an extensive snow and ice control program, covering more than 260 centerline miles. Public works partnered with an internal group, the Innovation Ecosystem (IE), to improve their snow and ice management program. The IE Innovators and Change Makers are specially trained in the practice of Lean Process and Change Management. A cross-divisional team of snowfighters was selected. Fighting snow was viewed by staff as a Streets Division operation, even though several operators from Utilities and Parks Divisions were needed. Representation from each division was critical for inclusion of all challenges and perspectives. The operators selected were not supervisors in the snow program to limit the filtering of communication between the drivers and the leaders of the project. Next, the team learned about each other and managing change. They were introduced to concepts such as constructive dissonance and creative abrasion. These concepts, combined with a greater understanding of their fellow operators, allowed them to clearly identify the challenges they had been experiencing. The team developed solutions to implement before the next snow season began. New snowshift schedules to provide desired certainty and reliability to the snowfighters and division managers, formalized training schedules shared with all drivers, and formalized and expanded communication paths were identified. Since implementing the changes, the morale of the snow fighting team has increased. The operators feel less fatigue throughout the season. Fleet Services has seen a reduction in repairs as a result of the training. The increased communication has allowed other improvements to occur based on driver discussions and feedback. The ecosystem of innovation allowed staff to collaborate and implement changes to the snow and ice program that improve the experience for the snowfighters and the community. The entire process took less than six months with available resources.
Read MoreThere are 240,000 water main breaks that occur across the country every year that leak 2.1 trillion gallons, costing billions of dollars in lost water. Today, most water distribution pipelines are old, buried, hidden from view, and not monitored at all. This leads to a lack of visibility along the miles of pipe that limits our ability to find leaks, prevent water loss, and understand the true operational nature of our systems. New sensor and software technologies can give utility operators continuous visibility for automation and fast operational response resulting in reduced water loss, fewer main breaks, regulatory compliance, and optimized asset health. Many utilities, however, do not have the financial, technical, or analytical resources needed to successfully deploy these remote monitoring assets. Discover how municipal water utilities are now leveraging new business models to gain access to the technologies, data, and practical insights without having to allocate capital budget, configure IT assets, or hire staff for monitoring and analytics.
Read MoreMany local governments are facing significant challenges due to a changing climate, including more frequent and longer lasting wildfires, drought, flooding, extreme heat and storms, as well as sea level…
Read MoreSo Liquids 101 told us why we use liquids. Liquids 201 focuses on the how of using liquids. How do we actually get, store, transfer, and apply liquids directly to the pavement. In this session, we will cover brine making, storage of liquid materials, the systems needed to transfer liquids from storage to trucks, and the equipment needed on the trucks to store liquids on the trucks and deliver liquids from the trucks to the road. We will also discuss typical application rates, how those rates vary depending on type of storm and the strategies you are pursuing, and what you should expect in terms of outcomes when using liquids in these ways. We will also present tested methods for providing your workforce with the needed training to implement a successful liquids program.
Read MoreAccurate equipment calibration is a cornerstone best management practice for winter maintenance operations. Yet, many agencies do not recognize or understand its value. Attend this session for a first-hand account of how smart equipment calibration can lower overall program costs and minimize environmental impacts.
Read MoreThis session will cover the roles of managing people in the public works fleet environment.
Read MoreGood asset management calls for utility owners to provide for the life extension of aging pipes where feasible. Products currently in use include Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP), pipe relining, and spray on applications. Each of these methods utilizes the existing pipe as a carrier for the new lining. During the installation, the pipeline is taken out of service which results in an interruption in service. Installation and repairs can take from several hours to several weeks. In most circumstances, it remains the obligation of the municipality or utility agency to continue to provide service during the rehabilitation process. To maintain service to customers, a pumping and by-pass system needs to be established before the sewer or water line is taken out of service. Maintenance projects like CIPP and spray on methods tend to follow a performance-based design/build approach leaving the specific application to the contractor. But what about the by-pass? Contractors may not be as familiar with the local environment as the local public works department or engineer. Pre-planning may be needed. By-pass routes, if long or within a congested community, can be an expensive and challenging process rife with environmental permit requirements, evaluation of easement rights/right-of-way, and conditions imposed within intergovernmental agreements. As by-pass systems can be a significant cost component of the repair project, planning and permitting the route in advance of the project can reduce uncertainties for the contractor which many times can yield lower costs to the owner.
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