Day 39 through 43 Day 39—Monday, Sept. 26 On Monday I attended our staff development meeting. We discussed several of the projects that are either under review or construction. We also talked about the challenge of helping people understand and follow through our development process which is as follows: during the concept stage, our staff…
Category: Civil Engineering
APWA Conference – Day 3
General Session Steven Johnson let the general session of the third day of APWA’s conference. His topic was “Creativity and the Brain—Where do good Ideas Come From?” Johnson started by sharing the story about John Snow who worked with maps and government mortality data to help determine the cause of cholera in the 1800s in…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Days 34 through 38
In an effort to catch up on my postings due to attending the APWA conference, I'm combining all last week into one post then following up tomorrow with the first two days of this week. Days 34 through 36 Day 34 was spent attending the APWA conference in Denver. You can read a short summary…
2011 APWA Conference – Day 2
Below is a report of the 2nd Day of the National APWA Conference: General Session: Becoming a Community Builder – Leadership in Changing Times Day two of the 2011 APWA conference started with a general session, Becoming a Community Builder – Leadership in Changing Times, with keynote speaker, Ian Hill. He began by sharing…
Opening Day at 2011 APWA Congress & Exposition
This year's International Public Works Conference & Exposition is being held in Denver, Colorado. The event opened yesterday morning with a welcome by the outgoing president, George Crombie, and a transfer of leadership to the new president, Diane M. Linderman. First General Session – Michael Hayden The first general session followed with keynote speaker, Michael Hayden,…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 32 and 33
Day 32 & 33 I decided to combine yesterday's post with today's because wow – have I been busy! On Thursday I tried to finalize a few outstanding items before taking off a few days to attend conferences. I finalized a cost estimate for resurfacing a major roadway in the city. Then sent out the…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 31
Day 31 Seminar/Workshop Today I attended a workshop on Adaptive Signal Control – one of the technology innovations in the Every Day Counts initiative. The class was given by FHWA, and the city of Bolingbrook hosted the site. There were only about 20 people there: 3 from municipalities, 2 consultants, 4 from counties and personnel…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 30
Day 30 Jury Duty Not sure if anyone realized I never uploaded an article yesterday, but I didn't post because I was called for jury duty. So I had to take the day off to go to that. It was interesting – I got as far as being questioned as a possible juror, but the…
BRT, PRT, and Human Behavior
I've blogged for some time about the benefits of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system because I believe there really are few other solutions that truly offer a comparable solution to the car. Unfortunately moving over to this type of system would take considerable time and funding so I'm not sure I'll see it in…
Creating an Impressive Planning Commission Document
One of the many benefits I have working for my current employer is the opportunity to work with other staff members who excel in their profession. And even though they impress me on a daily basis, this week I was totally blown away by the awesome job our city planner did on his report to…