As a homeowner, Orangeburg is most definitely not the word you ever want to hear. But for many, they will not only hear it, but they will also face the consequences of having had this pipe material used for their home's sanitary sewer. So to prevent experiencing any unforseen problems caused by this material, it's…
Category: Public Works
Why is the Illinois Department of Agriculture Determining Stormwater Rules for Cities?
Recently I wrote about the draft release of Post-Development Stormwater Runoff Performance Standards for Illinois. And in discussions with colleagues over the last few weeks, I have not heard any positive support from anyone who has a professional background in stormwater management or regulation. Instead the consensus among stormwater professionals regarding the draft is that the…
Illinois Considers New Stormwater Regulations
If you live in Illinois, it’s important for you to be aware of a set of recommendations for changes to stormwater regulations in Illinois. Because if the Illinois EPA (IEPA) adopts the recommendations as submitted, everyone in Illinois has the potential to be financially impacted by their implementation. And even though these recommendations have the…
Sharing the Road in 1906
The other day I saw a link posted for one of the most interesting transportation videos I have ever seen. It is about an 11-minute video of a trip down Market Street in San Francisco in 1906 before the fire/earthquake. From what I have read about it, someone filmed it with a camera placed in…
Create Your Own Bridge While the WashDOT Builds Theirs
There's a reason I bring up the Washington DOT every time I give a presentation about using social media in public works. They were early on the scene to realize how much social media could assist them in public relations, and they've done a great job figuring out how best to engage the public. And…
Virtual Worlds Help Demonstrate Root of Public Apathy
Fleep recently summarized the promise she saw in the Second Life community, the change that transpired there over the last few years, and her decision to focus her involvement in a different virtual community or platform. (You can read her article here: Why Anyone Who Cares. . ..) And based on the comments she received…
Sales Tax Exemptions for Public Projects
Normally when we bid a construction project, we don't address in the bid documents the payment of sales tax. We do, however, indicate that the contractor is required to follow all Federal, State, and Local laws. Because of this, I would assume that on most projects, a contractor would be paying any required sales tax…
Modeling a City
Pegasus Global Holdings is planning to build a full-scale city somewhere in New Mexico "to test and evaluate technologies in conditions that most closely simulate real-world applications." According to the project's website, CITE-CITY, the company proposed building the model to overcome challenges related to access, long waits, and costs that they faced in carrying out…
Get Your Public Works Questions Answered Here!
Have you ever had a question about something related to public works? Sewers, roads, water, garbage, engineering, GIS, general government, or anything else related to what we do? Well, we're trying out a new service that would allow anyone to post or answer a question related to public works. Maybe you work in the field…
Kinect, Robotics, Highway Safety, and Saving Lives
There's been a lot of talk about the use of Kinect and robotics. Yes, people have figured out how to use Microsoft's awesome gadget to manipulate robots. And Microsoft even has a Robotics website and development toolkits for this purpose. But so far, most of the demos I have seen focus on using robots…