Public Works Insights & Solutions

Asset Management Basics: 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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The US Pothole Problem

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The word pothole is universally despised by both public works agencies and the citizens they serve. Dwindling budgets, a lack of available resources, increased traffic, and a more severe freeze thaw cycle have all led public works agencies to face an uphill battle when it comes to pothole patching. Although all these factors can be attributed to the increase in potholes issues over the last several years, the single biggest factor contributing to the influx of potholes is the use of outdated repair methods. The repair method commonly known as “throw and go” has been used by public works agencies for 30+ years and at one point in time may have been adequate; however, as the surrounding infrastructure continues to age and deteriorate, the throw and go method is no longer an adequate option when it comes to pothole patching. KM International’s Pothole Patching Guide discusses current pothole patching methods along with why they are no longer a viable option, and gives a comprehensive outline of the new recommended methods with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step to implement it into your public work agency.

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Solving the impossible problem: The challenges of high-density routing for public works departments

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High-density routing differs from point-to-point routing in that it focuses on finding the most cost-effective route that visits all locations in a dense area, such as a city’s street network. This type of routing has a variety of applications, such as waste and recycling collection, street sweeping, and snow plowing.

Software products, such as FleetRoute, have been created to maximize the efficiency of vehicles and crews in industries where large numbers of customers or streets need to be serviced. Rubicon acquired FleetRoute in 2021, and in this white paper we look at the six ways that we recommend beginning to solve the challenges of high-density routing based on Rubicon and FleetRoute’s more than 30 years of combined experience in this space.

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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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The State of Infrastructure Funding & Technology

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From the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a massive amount of funding is being injected into state and local governments across the country.

With immense funding earmarked for infrastructure, we wanted to know: Are communities ready to take advantage of this opportunity? What are their biggest challenges? Do they have the people, technology, and processes to support this growth?

To find out, Cartegraph partnered with the Center for Digital Government to survey state and local government leaders across public works, technology, finance, and more. Download the State of Infrastructure Funding & Technology report now to access an executive summary of our survey findings alongside actionable expert insights.

Download the research now to answer questions like:

• How prepared are jurisdictions to apply for and use funds?
• What are the pressing needs to improve asset conditions?
• How concerned are my peers about deferred maintenance?
• What are the top 10 challenges in leveraging funds?
• How does the type of solution impact my peers' confidence in their infrastructure tracking processes and systems?
• What can public works teams do to make the most of this federal funding opportunity?

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Moving toward more sustainable snowfighting

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Vehicle collisions on snowy and icy U.S. roads kill 1,300 people each year and injure 116,000. And research shows that those numbers would be far higher without the heroic efforts of winter maintenance teams de-icing our roads and highways. There’s no question: Winter operations save lives. Unfortunately, the safety benefits of today’s standard de-icing practices carry with them significant costs — both literally and in terms of their effects on the environment. But enhancing your road-salting practices with newer processes and tools — including the right telematics system — can have a big impact on your municipality’s bottom line, while lessening your impact on the environment. This whitepaper delves into each environmental challenge and offers suggestions on how your winter maintenance program can minimize costs and also protect the planet.

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2022 State of Flood Risk Management Report

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For many communities and organizations, flood risks continue to rise. AEM’s 2022 State of Flood Risk Management Report gives you the latest thinking from the professionals who are responsible for managing these risks.

The report draws on survey responses from professionals across the globe who work for a wide range of organizations spanning both the public and private sectors. The report delivers insights into your peers’ thinking across a variety of important issues, including:

• How flood risk stacks up against other weather risks
• The most common challenges tied to managing flood risk
• The overall impact of flooding in recent years
• The expected impact of flooding in 2023
• Policies and tools for managing flood risks
• Budgeting for flood risk management solutions

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How Raleigh Saves Millions on Pavement Maintenance

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Smarter decision-making means better use of funds. Raleigh, North Carolina, is known for its quality of life, proximity to leading research universities, and booming tech economy. But rapid growth has put additional demands on the local infrastructure. This case study shows how Raleigh is modernizing its infrastructure strategy—beginning with its most valuable asset: the local pavement network. The result? Safer, sustainable streets and sidewalks—and cost savings for the public.

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The Lees Approach to Applied Mechanical Stabilization

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One of the most common challenges during sitework is the efficient construction over soft soils. For the past thirty years, designs using geosynthetics to stabilize soft soils have relied on empirical methods based on the observation of a narrow sets of test data.

Calling on our years of experience in research and application, combined with our engineering expertise, Tensar has developed a new approach for soil stabilization using geogrids. The Lees Approach to Applied Mechanical Stabilization (LAAMS) is a very powerful and scientifically rigorous design approach. This design approach is derived from fundamental, but well-established engineering principles, which offers greater reliability across a wide range of engineered solutions using geogrids. Best of all, due to the advancements in testing and understanding of composite behavior between geogrid and different granular materials, designers can gain more precision in determining the performance of a mechanically stabilized layer (MSL).

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Street Smarts: 5 Keys for Local Pavement Owners

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Local pavement owners face a complex set of challenges. The pressure to modernize critical infrastructure, improve safety, and reach sustainability targets is intense, while budgets and resources are limited. Many municipalities also need to expand their transportation networks to accommodate rapid population growth.

Traditional “worst-first” and simple ranking approaches to pavement management fail to address these challenges. Instead, local governments need to take a more modern approach to pavement management.

Modern pavement management enables agencies to be proactive in preserving the entire pavement network in good condition rather than letting the infrastructure degrade to the point of needing costly rehabilitation or reconstruction. The modern approach incorporates data and advanced analysis to support a more holistic infrastructure lifecycle management strategy—a proven method to increase the safety and longevity of assets while reducing maintenance costs.

This guidebook provides five keys to help local leaders get the most value from infrastructure funds to manage streets, sidewalks and other pavement assets. Using examples from successful agencies, this guide illustrates strategies to improve the performance and cost-effectiveness of your local pavement network.

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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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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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