Public Works Insights & Solutions

Soil Stabilization Methods: Chemical vs. Geogrid

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When choosing the best soil stabilization method for your site, key considerations are upfront construction costs, time & feasibility of installation, and long-term durability of the solution. Chemicals (e.g., PCC, lime and fly ash) and geogrid are two common, yet different approaches for stabilizing problematic soils. But when the key considerations are factored in, how do these two methods match up in a head-to-head comparison? Our new e-book may introduce a few surprising perspectives.

Inside we discuss:

• A brief review of chemical and geogrid stabilization methods
• Pros and cons of each method throughout various stages of construction
• Actual project examples
• Our free design software for comparing options

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Preserve Your Pavement: A Road Map to Data-Driven Budgeting

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Your street and roadway network represents your biggest, most expensive asset. In fact, the commitment to repair and preserve your pavement can demand up to 20 percent of your annual resurfacing budget. But, according to the Infrastructure Report Card, U.S. roads have a significant and increasing backlog of rehabilitation needs.

So what’s the best way to make the most of your pavement budget while preserving the life of those valuable streets and roadways?

Download this white paper now to uncover:

• The importance and benefits of a pavement management system
• A 7-step approach to putting your pavement data to work
• How to choose the right solution to meet current and future needs
• 5 sets of budget and condition-based analyses that fuel data-driven pavement decisions

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RFP Best Practices: How to develop a future-proofed AVL solicitation in 2022

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Technology is continually changing. What worked five years ago is likely not working today, which requires you to create a platform for change across your public works department. This whitepaper will guide you on building a vendor requirements solicitation that ensures you are future-proofing your city and acting in your citizens' best interest.

With the right AVL partner, you can improve how each of your divisions operates—from winter operations to waste management to street sweeping and beyond—saving the city time and money year after year.

This whitepaper will outline how to create a future-proofed RFP that ensures you partner with the right vendor for your contract term and beyond.

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Construction Data Meets GIS Visualization: Improving Transparency, Collaboration, and Efficiency

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Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, is a foundational technology for the future of construction project management. By integrating construction project data with GIS tools for visualization and analysis, agencies can vastly improve transparency, collaboration, and efficiency on their projects. In this whitepaper, we’ll cover:

• Emerging GIS trends in our industry
• Benefits of geo-enabling processes like field data collection
• What it means to be insight-driven vs. data-driven

All information in this report is derived from technology pilot programs, industry statistics, and conversations with industry experts from Esri and LPAs.

If you are looking to take your agency’s asset management, public transparency, and reporting to the next level by integrating your construction project data with GIS visualization tools, this whitepaper is for you.

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Best Practice Guide: Running an efficient, effective solid waste collection operation

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Managing waste is often one of the most expensive costs that a city faces. It is therefore essential that the waste and recycling collection operations in your city are running as efficiently and effectively as possible.

RUBICONSmartCity™ has helped local governments nationwide collectively save millions of dollars, reduce CO2 emissions, and increase citizen satisfaction by improving the way they manage waste collection. Over the last six years, we have spoken to almost every solid waste department in the United States, deploying our solution in over 80 cities. In that period, we have learned a lot about the current state of municipal solid waste operations across the country. Based on this experience, we have compiled a best practice guide on how to design an efficient, effective solid waste collection operation. We invite you to download the guide below.

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Telematics for Public Works Operations

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Your handy guide to optimizing your public works fleet with telematics.

Discover the many ways that telematics data can benefit your public works fleet operations like managing material usage, meeting compliance regulations or even enacting preventive maintenance measures.

What’s inside the guide:

• How to fine-tune your public works fleet activities with telematics
• How other U.S. government agencies applied telematics data to increase operational fleet efficiencies
• The right questions to ask and criteria to consider when selecting a telematics provider
• The crucial steps to follow for a successful telematics implementation

The Geotab Guide to Telematics for Public Works Operations shows you how telematics can take the guesswork out of your public works fleet management strategy and help you to start making data-driven decisions instead. Now armed with accurate reporting on key metrics like salt usage in the winter, route completion for waste management or even oil change schedules for your vehicles, telematics is your go-to, one-stop-shop for optimizing your public works fleet operations.

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Emergency Response & Mitigation Planning

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Emergency Management & Disaster Mitigation
Public Works Responsibilities in regards to Planning and Mitigation of Potential Disasters

This document is an introduction for Emergency Planners and in particular Public Works operations to the importance of utilizing a digital-based inspection format to help you plan for, assess and react to various emergency situations you may be involved with. By using digital-based inspection formats this will allow you to not only plan for potential disasters but to communicate to various services within your community, province or state on assets required, emergency response planning and emergency action that may have to be implemented in the event of a disaster.

Primary topics of discussion will include the following:

1. The importance of using accurate documentation and reporting for an emergency management plan.
2. Effective equipment and facility maintenance to ensure functionality during an emergency.
3. Efficient ways to accumulate information for short- and long-term planning.
4. The importance of streamlining communications for focused prevention.

Join Alan Kavanaugh, CRM, CCPI, the Director of Loss Control and Risk Management at Noratek Solutions Inc, as he digs deeper into what elements are necessary to include in your Risk Assessment Process and subsequent risk management or loss control program.

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HDPE vs. Concrete: A Comparison of Manhole Ring Materials

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Across North America, municipalities have a decision to make regarding the manhole rings used in their infrastructure. The choice is between traditional concrete rings and the more recently developed high density polyethylene (HDPE) rings. The rings must resist inflow & infiltration (I&I), which can occur as the result of corrosion caused by hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) or deterioration caused by heavy traffic vibration and freeze/thaw cycles. Municipal decision-makers are tasked with specifying a system that offers performance and durability while remaining mindful of their budget. Concrete has been the conventional choice because it’s been around the longest and is familiar to engineers and contractors. Yet, HDPE has emerged in the last 30 years as a reliable alternative. This white paper provides a comparison of concrete manhole rings and HDPE manhole rings. Featuring comments from city engineers and contractors, readers will gain insight into the issues faced by municipalities today and the factors that are considered when making decisions that impact key components of infrastructure.

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Thinking Beyond Asset Management: A Guide for Public Works

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As a public works professional, a lot is resting upon your shoulders. The work you perform and the decisions you make directly impact the quality of life of your citizens. And, while your residents don’t necessarily know what it takes to maintain millions of dollars in infrastructure—you do. But the hard truth is that many public works departments today are struggling to keep up.

This white paper will help your organization better understand modern operations management—what it is, why it works—and begin thinking about implementing its strategies and technologies to become more effective, efficient, and productive for your citizens.

Download your free guide now to answer questions like:

• How can my public works crew become more efficient?
• What asset management best practices should I be following?
• How can my team make smarter, data-driven decisions about our infrastructure?
• What 7 traits should I look for in an operations management system?
• How can my team help build a stronger, more resilient community?

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Overcoming 5 Common Challenges Facing Facility Managers

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Your building and facility portfolio represent your community’s largest financial asset. It’s also your second-largest expense and one of your most significant long-term obligations. With so much on the line, even the smallest improvement to facility maintenance and management can result in higher-performing operations, financial savings, and a significant return on investment.

Grab this free guide now to better understand the top five issues facing facility managers today. Along the way, you’ll also uncover tips, tools, and best practices that will help your public works team overcome each of these challenges and thrive in the new normal.

Specifically, you’ll learn more about:

• Reducing facility costs and maximizing facility revenues
• Proactively maintaining deteriorating infrastructure assets
• Destroying data silos and improving information integrity
• Simplifying complex data to make smarter decisions, and
• Protecting and engaging your employees and constituents

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Custom Steel Inlet/Catch Basin Risers Presentation

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Look at costs to raise catch basin/inlet grates to grade by manually excavating the frame, resetting it, and pouring concrete. Go over three case studies (WI DOT, NJ DOT, IL DOT) interstate paving projects using catch basin/inlet risers. Look at pros and cons of steel vs. cast iron catch basin/inlet risers (customizability/fit, available riser heights, strength, weight, safety, and sustainability).

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Understanding the Benefits of Cost-Based Estimation

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Welcome to an exploration of cost-based estimation. Cost-based estimation is one of many estimating methods used to assess the projected cost of work items in a construction project. What sets the cost-based estimation methodology apart is the depth of analysis of those work items. Throughout this whitepaper, we’ll examine:

• The cost-based estimation methodology and its associated benefits
• How reliable estimates can be used with greater confidence when evaluating bids
• How estimate-based bid analysis of projects leads to more informed estimating

We’ll also dive into the estimator-contractor relationship. Discussions with contractors can provide key information for your estimation process. We’ll introduce a few ways to involve your contractors in your estimate analysis in effective, professional ways.

If you are an organization that is seeking to understand why your estimates don’t line up with the bids you receive, or why your current estimation method may not be consistently reliable, this whitepaper is for you.

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Adjustable Manhole Riser can save over 81% of the cost of adjusting utilities

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This presentation examines all the costs and impacts to contractors and project owners when raising manholes to grade during and after paving and milling projects. Pros and cons of several utility-raising methods are compared, specifically with regard to crew safety, cost-effectiveness, impact on schedule, labor costs, and impact on sustainability initiatives. One particular raising method, adjustable manhole riser rings, is examined in great detail, and the practical use of adjustable risers is demonstrated in real-world case studies.

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Technology for transparency: How a Citizen Portal can help you better communicate with your residents

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Public works departments receive calls every day from residents and it’s not to say hi. Most of their calls are related to delayed winter street plowing, late waste pick-up, lack of street sweeping or a new pothole they hit on their daily commute. Due to a lack of transparency, they are quick to ask questions about how their tax dollars are being spent without knowing the overwhelming strain on public services. Traditionally, citizens had to wait for information, because municipalities needed to manually communicate information to residents over the phone while juggling public service jobs in the field that attend to immediate resident concerns.

When cities implement GPS tracking systems to improve their planning, service routes, and employee efficiency on the backend, they start collecting the data they need to show their constituents that the municipality is doing everything in its power to maintain their cities.

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Saving When Repaving

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How to cut manhole raising costs by 81% and extend new pavement lifespan: Take a look at Kansas City Study on the Effect of Manholes on Street Condition. Analyze all the costs of raising manholes to grade when paving by taking a closer look at the labor and material costs associated with different methods. List the pros and cons of various manhole raising techniques. Take a look at features for in an ideal manhole rising product. Briefly look at 3 case studies.

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Ensuring Data Security in a Cloud-Enabled Solution

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Skeptical about cloud security? Rest assured, we’ve done the work to keep you safe.

Secure, user-friendly, cloud-enabled digital transformation is here for fueling operations. Download our white paper “Ensuring Data Security in a Cloud-Enabled Platform” to learn how the DFS DX™ connected solutions platform’s user management capabilities are designed to deliver a secure and seamless experience to fuel site operators and their IT admins.

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Information Gathering, Risk Management, Inspections & Work Orders

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The Risk Assessment Process guides Public Works Departments in identifying potential risks or hazards to minimize their exposure. When creating one for your specific department, utilize best practices, including codes, standards, and regulations.

Design a risk management or loss control program that evaluates what you have, what you could be exposed to, what you should inspect, and what actions you need to take in the event of a fault or other situation.

Understanding what elements to include when creating a Risk Assessment is vital to ensuring that all areas are taken into account, and particular areas are noted for inspection based on use, potential exposures, location and overall condition.

Join Alan Kavanaugh, CRM, CCPI, the Director of Loss Control and Risk Management at Noratek Solutions, Inc., as he digs deeper into what elements are necessary to include in your Risk Assessment Process and subsequent risk management or loss control program.

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Protecting Employees from Severe Weather

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Environmental Health & Safety Professionals cannot afford to overlook the risks that severe weather imposes on finances, operations, and people as well. Employees and the public alike need to be protected from conditions like flash flooding, high heat, lightning strikes, and poor air quality. However, this task is easier said than done. This solutions guide will help you examine the weather risks and dangerous weather conditions that threaten employees who work outdoors.

Learn all about:

• Outdoor Employees and Weather Risks
• Dangerous Transportation Conditions
• High Temperatures
• Lightning & Storms
• Air Quality
• An Equation for Overall Safety
• Elements of a Comprehensive Solution
• Automation is the Answer

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Asset Management Basics Ebook and Worksheets: A Guide For Communities of All Sizes

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You know there must be an easier way to run your public works department with confidence and clarity. But, change can be daunting—so how and where do you begin? From crafting your municipal asset management strategy to performing your initial infrastructure inventory, this free ebook—complete with practice worksheets—will guide you every step of the way.

Claim your FREE eBook now to answer the following questions:

• How do I build an asset management strategy for my community?
• How do my current public works operations stack up?
• Does my community really need a public works asset management system?
• What 7 steps should I follow to select an asset management system?
• Who else should be involved in the system selection process?
• Why and how should I kick off an asset management pilot program?
• What should I do to maintain my work and asset management system?

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2021-2022 U.S. Winter Outlook

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Do you know what to expect this winter? Seasonal conditions can significantly impact travel safety and mobility. Whether you clear your local roads to keep traffic flowing safely or drive the nation's highways to keep our challenged supply chain moving, you understand that accurate weather insights help fuel better planning and more efficient operations.

Discover what the season holds for your service territory with our brand new 2021-2022 U.S. Winter Outlook. Our trusted team of top-rated, long-range weather forecasters and transportation industry experts have broken down the details for you, nationwide and by region, in a handy report.

See where rain and snow will be abundant, where dry conditions will persist, and where mixed precipitation will be a frequent threat. Know where to expect frigid temperatures and where temps will vary widely. Save our report to refer to as the season progresses.

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Bid Management for Public Works

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PlanetBids’ Bid Management module is the most complete web-based system on the market today. More importantly, the PB System™ can handle construction and public works projects – unique to the eProcurement industry. Contractors can interactively search and respond to bid opportunities securely over the Internet while the entire paper-intensive submissions are submitted online. Certification validation, time/date stamps, addendum tracking, and internal checking of mandatory requirements will streamline your process and minimize any chance of errors. Download a copy of the latest white paper.

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Gaining trust through transparency in the public sector

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With Geotab’s newly released Citizen Insights, government agencies can build public trust by providing citizens with up-to-date visibility into road service operations. Create an open line of communication with your citizens and deliver real-time operational insights that allow them to plan for safer and more efficient travel.

Charlottesville, Virginia is one of the first government agencies to launch Citizen Insights, and explained the reasons why you should consider adding Citizen Insights to your fleet management solution.

• Reduce public complaints and inquiries
• Achieve first-rate service to your community
• Offer an intuitive, configurable public-facing website

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Flood Resilience and Planning: How do we manage flood risks?

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Flooding is the most common and widespread of all weather-related natural disasters and is a threat in every part of the world primarily where rainfall occurs. Over the last 25 years, 99% U.S. counties have been impacted by a flood event (FEMA). In 2021 the number of flood-related fatalities in the U.S. has already more than doubled compared to 2020 (NOAA). All this means that being prepared for potential water-related hazards is not only smart, but crucial for communities in order to protect lives and safeguard property and infrastructure.

Whether you’re involved in urban planning and development, Stormwater & Wastewater operations, or water resources management, improving our understanding of the threats of extreme weather and flooding potential is highly important in taking measures to make our communities flood-resilient and safe.

Today, an array of sophisticated technologies, systems, software, methods, and tools is available to us that provide a better understanding of rainfall and hydrology, flood frequency and magnitude, and the associated flood risks.

This Flood Resilience and Planning guide provides insight on how we can better prepare, design, and plan for flooding events, improve resiliency, and employ technologies that help protect lives and property.

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Smart Water Networks: Increasing Utilities’ ROI on Data

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Water utilities face constant pressure to maintain and improve infrastructure and meet demand without impacting customers. Everything from planning to operations needs to be efficient, effective, and smart.

To help achieve this, utilities rely on a wide array of data. Sources such as asset management systems, GIS, and SCADA feed a steady flow of data to inform decision-making. However, these sources are often siloed. Teams—engineers, specialists, operators, and planners—don’t interact with each other, putting a cap on the insights that data can provide.

Connecting data sources can help utilities avoid the information silo. Around the world, hydraulic modeling software is being used to show how water systems react to different stimuli through simulations. Siloed data sources have their own uses. But interconnected systems paint a far more detailed picture that gives water utilities what they need to make smart investment decisions.

This eBook examines how hydraulic modeling connects data sources to deliver new and meaningful insights. Download now to learn what utilities are doing to improve services and ways modeling can help you turn your data sources into smarter and more predictable operational decisions.

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Telematics for Winter Operations: How the Massachusetts DOT balances safety, efficiency and sustainability

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The demands on today’s winter operations fleet managers are intense. Keeping the roads clear is a huge task in itself. And while safety is the first priority, environmental compliance is an increasingly important part of the job.

Learn how the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has found success in using telematics paired with Automatic Vehicle Location and GPS equipment to monitor and reduce road salt usage.

Read the report to uncover:

• Why salt is the material of choice in winter operations
• Why winter operations leaders are working to reduce salt usage
• How MassDOT tackles road salt problem with telematics

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Emergencies in Water Utilities: Preventing, Preparing, and Responding

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Because emergencies can impact the flow of water, it is critical for water utilities to proactively identify potential vulnerabilities and create more resilient systems. The objective is to minimize the impact of emergencies on public health.

Utilities are using hydraulic modeling to do just that. It shows a clear and actionable impact scenario for unexpected water events that everyone can understand. This type of detailed and integrated modeling gives response teams better and more complete information.

Hydraulic modeling can also be useful as a predictor. It’s capable of revealing problem points to engineers before they turn into failures and delivers a full representation of water systems, showcasing where issues might reside. Full simulations show how systems react to specific stresses, giving engineers clarity on everything from maintenance needs to disaster responses.

This eBook explores specific use cases where a calibrated real-time hydraulic model can be most effective. Download it today to gain a deeper understanding of how this kind of modeling can predict and reduce the impact of shutdowns and catastrophic events.

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Abrasive Chainsaws Found to Decrease Kickback Risk When Cutting Pipe in a Trench

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According to published research, an abrasive chainsaw has a significantly smaller kickback zone and generates nearly 50% less kickback energy than a circular cutoff saw, making it a safer choice for operators cutting pipe in the trench. ICS Diamond Tools & Equipment engaged a world-leading research university to conduct this independent study. Download the white paper to learn more about reducing kickback risk and why abrasive chainsaws are the safer and more efficient option for cutting pipe.

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Digital Twins: Why Every Utility Executive Should Care

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Government and public/private utilities receive data every second of every day. Resource usage, updates on the health of substations, and more are constantly routed to providers. The organization can then make informed, data-driven decisions to ensure maximum performance and cost-efficiency.

However, that is only if they can interpret data. Siloed decisions, acquisitions, and new energy sources mean that data, some of which is impactful to operations, remains underutilized or not used at all. Disparate tools that don’t integrate well leave significant operational insights uncovered and fail to reflect what is actually happening in the field.

Digital twins, digital representations of assets or systems, are being used by government utility organizations to solve these data challenges. Digital twins bring unrelated systems under one virtual roof to give utility decision-makers a full representation of their asset or system.

This white paper makes the case for digital twin technology in electric utility management. By connecting dozens of data providers and billions of data points into one system, leaders and managers alike will gain a deeper understanding of total grid performance and make better decisions.

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Podcast: Intelligent Road Weather Monitoring

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Road maintenance has come a long way since the first salt was spread on Detroit’s roads in 1940. Today, more cars and trucks than ever are rolling over America’s highways and streets. Monitoring road weather conditions with adequate systems and sensors is vital to saving lives and supporting winter road maintenance.

In OTT HydroMet’s meteorology podcast, road weather specialists explain how traffic professionals can use different technologies to support their daily work. These combine invasive sensors, flush-mounted to into the tarmac, optical sensors monitoring the road from above, as well as mobile sensors to close data gaps at places where stationary sensors cannot be installed due to budget or technical restrictions. Atmospheric measurements parameters including air and surface temperature, humidity, water film height, freezing temperature, visibility, and more, are as important. So, a smart interaction of different sensor types and adequate software is key to intelligent road weather monitoring.

In this episode, OTT HydroMet’s road weather experts Steven Marks and Manuel Kreissig talk about:

• Differences between static and mobile road weather sensors
• Applications and successful setups to monitor road weather
• Trend: Interaction of various types of sensors with help of intelligent software solutions to support and relieve winter maintenance

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Innovation in the Construction Industry

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The construction industry has a long history of innovation. From the Romans paving the way for our modern road infrastructure to technological breakthroughs like the building information modeling (BIM) system, we’ve come a long way from breaking the wheels of our horse-drawn carriages in rutted dirt roads.

And just as the Romans improved upon dirt roads and modern asphalt roads improved upon Roman highways, we’re entering a new and exciting era of construction innovation—one where recycled asphalt lowers costs and carbon emissions, internet of things (IoT) sensors analyze traffic data to improve safety and reduce congestion, and electrified roads charge electric cars in transit. Innovation is exciting, but it can also breed anxiety. Imagine the skepticism John Froelich faced when he told farmers he’d invented a replacement for horses!

The truth is, innovation is good. Innovations reduce long-term costs, boost resilience, and increase productivity. That’s no less true for the construction industry.

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9 Steps to Launch a Successful Asset Management Program

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Municipalities and utilities of all sizes strive to provide reliable and affordable services to their ratepayers while protecting the health of the public and minimizing financial and environmental risks. These challenges must be faced in the context of a perfect storm of aging infrastructure and equipment, increasing operation and maintenance costs, aging workforces with increasing retirements and increasingly strict regulatory requirements. One way to successfully address these multiple challenges is an effective asset management program. With sound implementation, user interface and data collection processes, an asset management program can help increase performance, reduce risk of failures, improve inherent reliability and lower the overall cost of asset ownership.

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A Roadmap for Road Weather

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Every year there are 1.2 million motor vehicle accidents caused by weather (U.S. DOT), and the majority of those are due to altered pavement conditions from wet or freezing precipitation. With climate change, the incidence of severe weather is rising, and the cost and pace of maintaining America’s 4+ million miles of roads is becoming more difficult with each year. Road Weather Information (RWIS) and Flooded Roadways Systems are an integral part of an effective strategy for managing road weather. These automated systems provide real-time weather and road condition data connected to web-based software that can be used to initiate alerts, activate road sign beacons or barriers, and mobilize emergency responders. Advances in technology have made rapid-deploy road weather systems a necessity for state and local public works departments.

In this solutions guide, you’ll learn about the technology, features, and benefits of various types of RWIS and Flooded Roadways Systems, including those that detect high water, flooding, and icy road conditions. Hear from municipalities who have deployed these systems to improve road safety for motorists and improve operational efficiencies for road crews when inclement weather threatens. Read about best practices for road weather management from experts in this guide, A Roadmap for Road Weather – Smart Solutions for Road Weather Information and Flooded Roadways Systems.

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Asset Management for Municipal Public Works

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One of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the U.S., the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, saves millions of dollars a year while delivering safer, longer-lasting transportation infrastructure.

In this Ask the Expert video, Chris McGee, P.E., the City’s Assistant Transportation Director and President of APWA’s North Carolina Chapter, explains how Raleigh modernized its asset management practices to extend the life of its roadways, ramps, and sidewalks—all while reducing annual maintenance costs by $8M-$9M.

Watch the video, Asset Management for Municipal Public Works, to learn how Raleigh:

• Improves outcomes by moving from a worst-first to a preservation-focused asset management approach
• Makes better investment decisions using advanced analytics and integrated systems
• Increases the safety and performance of its entire pavement network while reducing operating costs
• Continues to innovate its asset management practices across multiple asset types
• Leverages relationships with municipal governments across the U.S. to implement industry-leading strategies

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Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World

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The pandemic created a major shift in city goals and priorities, pushing collaboration between the public and private sector to the forefront. To better understand the lessons learned during these activities, ESI ThoughtLab collaborated with Bentley Systems and a global coalition of other businesses, government agencies and academic institutions. The goal was to better understand how over 160 city leaders prioritize cybersecurity technology, data analytics and new funding models to help keep constituents safe and businesses open. Using the United Nations (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework, this timely research explores how over 160 cities have transformed themselves using smart innovation and public-private partnerships to improve the everyday life of their constituents. Read more about best practices for city transformation in this paper, Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World.

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Introduction to Modern Government Permitting and Licensing

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It is high time to ditch inefficient and opaque paper processes. Here is your guide to modernizing permitting and licensing. Outdated or paper-based permitting and licensing processes are wasting your time, making your government less attractive to do business with, and decreasing resident satisfaction. Modern online permitting and licensing can help by streamlining processes from intake through issuance. This, in turn, saves staff hours, drives increased revenue, and delights residents, businesses and developers seeking to do business with your community. This guide answers what exactly modern permitting and licensing can do for your government, and how you can best get started.

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Electric vs. Propane

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What’s the best power source for heating asphalt? For truck-mounted pothole patchers, it generally comes down to electric versus propane. This white paper explores safety, cost, efficiency, practicality, and environmental impact, of both—concluding electric is the better option. Safety: With regular inspection, maintenance, and proper use, both propane and electric heaters can be relatively safe to use. But there is less fear of a malfunction in an electric heater. Cost: Since this is a major consideration, the paper goes beyond a cursory look at cost-per-unit of energy to consider the initial purchase cost of equipment, the cost of maintenance, eventual replacement, and cost of daily power consumption. Efficiency: The evidence shows most fossil-fuel-fired burners operate at 80 to 85 percent efficiency when new, while an electric-powered heater operates at 100 percent and lasts longer. Practicality: It is widely believed that a propane heater can get up to temperature faster than electric heat. The paper explains why the difference is minimal and largely irrelevant. Environmental Impact: Electricity is a cleaner source of energy in almost all applications, when compared to fossil fuels, and can eliminate the need for expensive permits required to operate propane heaters.

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Reusable Manhole Safety Ramps & Safety Ramps for Exposed Edges

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The Overlooked Detail That Saves Time & Money on Roadway Milling Projects. Look at how big a problem is Vehicle Damage due to exposed utilities on Mill & Fill paving projects and the associated Liability to the Contractor, Municipality or State. Look at Inadequate Solutions such as signage, cones, paint, cold mix, and millings. Briefly go over 2 case studies looking at safety and savings.

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Evaluating Paved and Unpaved Road Design and Product Research

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The mechanisms governing roadway performance are complex. Because roads are designed for long service lives under varying conditions, differences in performance which may seem small at first can be magnified over time and lead to premature failures. Diligent civil engineers and contractors can lower these risks by relying on quantitative data from laboratory and field tests to support their designs and select the right materials. The level of expertise required to properly conduct performance testing on both paved and unpaved roads is significant, and even those with extensive experience in this area need to be extremely diligent to make sure the data they publish and the conclusions they reach are valid. It’s critical that researchers follow established protocols such as those published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

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Stabilization vs. Reinforcement: What's the Difference?

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The terms "stabilization" and "reinforcement" are often used interchangeably when discussing geogrids used for civil engineering applications. However, there are key differences in their definitions that have far-reaching implications. In recent years, certification bodies have begun to recognize these differences, giving engineers the confidence that the products and systems they specify are fit for their intended purposes.

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Reducing Chlorides with Brine

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The vision of this white paper is to focus on the concerns and solutions of protecting our environment by using brine within our winter maintenance efforts. The paper focuses on the effects of chlorides on the environment and how we can effectively reduce the risk of them moving forward. The paper also covers the best solutions and how to apply them to your program today.

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A True Comparison of Paving Mats

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It can be very confusing when deciding among different fiberglass paving mats in the marketplace. Although they may appear to have similar physical properties when comparing technical data sheets, it's important to have an understanding of the composition of these products that make their performance very different.

To demonstrate and quantify various products' ability to resist cracks, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) conducted an overlay fracture performance study. The TTI testing captured the stress and strain improvement provided by interlayers and allowed for the calculation of an interlayer product's ability to resist reflective cracking. The CMF (Crack Mitigating Factor) quantifies the combined improvement of the reinforced asphalt vs. unreinforced asphalt in terms of dealing with both stresses and strains.

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RFP Best Practices: How to develop a future-proofed AVL solicitation in 2021

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To properly assess an AVL or GPS telematics solution's current and future needs can be a daunting task for any City or Public Works department. At a minimum, you need to be sure the system you choose will be able to meet your current needs based on your infrastructure, budget, and available resources and assets. An even more critical requirement is that the solution and the provider you choose can meet the ever-growing needs of your organization and the citizens you serve. If you're new to the AVL Telematics RFP process for your city or county, developing an operational strategy from scratch can be terrifying. There are your requirements to consider plus those that you will require from your partner. That's where this whitepaper will prove useful. Technology is continually changing. What worked five years ago is likely not working today, which requires you to create a platform for change across your public works department. This whitepaper will guide you on building a vendor requirements solicitation that ensures you are future-proofing your city and acting in your citizens' best interest.

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