Day 28 Utility in our Right of Way with No Permit Today I spent a little more time looking into the utility that was placed in our right of way with no permit. We went out into the field to measure how far off the road the concrete handholes were poured. For most of the…
Category: Stormwater
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 25
Day 25 Water Main Extension Most of the first half of my morning was spent working on a cost estimate for the water main extension I have designed. I also filled out all the IEPA permits for the project and had our water superintendent sign them. Then I filled out the EcoCat to determine…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 17
Day 17 Alley reconstruction project Well I waited until later tonight to post because we had a public meeting tonight at city hall for an alley reconstruction project. The city has over the last several years replaced their alleys with concrete pavement, and this one is the last in this particular neighborhood. We completed the…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 15
Day 15 GIS Maps Yesterday at the very end of the day, our IT staff added a link on our Intranet site to the web map we had created. This is an online map of our GIS information that's accessed through a browser. Unfortunately we still haven't been able to make the web map in…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 14
Day 14 This morning we started out handling a concern from a resident whose driveway was poured last week as part of the road project. The contractor was supposed to have taken off the barricades yesterday. But for some reason, they never got over there to open up the drive. So we had to call…
The Exciting Life of a Street Sweeper
I’ve never actually ridden in the street sweeper even though I’ve managed street sweeping operations in the past. But I can certainly imagine what it would be like. Day after day of driving about 10 miles an hour along the edge of every road carefully avoiding parked cars, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Then driving to the…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 5
Day 5 The main items grabbing my attention today involved the following: Striping Today the stripers were in town placing the thermoplastic paint on a few of our newly paved roads. Normally I don't get too involved in the operation because we have a project engineer and technician inspecting and managing the project. But today,…
CCDD Update – Get the Scoop on CCDD & Let IEPA Know What You Think
If you’re involved in construction in Illinois, you are probably well aware of new CCDD law passed last year and made effective immediately by our state legislators and governor. Many of us have been struggling to understand this new law because it was created with little guidance but severe penalties for noncompliance. Fortunately the Chicago…
A CCDD Update – February 2011
Background information for those just wandering into this legislative disaster: Last year, some of our Illinois legislators passed a law to regulate and impose a fee on anyone trying to dump dirt in a hole. At least that's the way it started out. As you will see from this update, the IEPA has worked to…
Flood Barrier Solutions
Having experienced several flooding emergencies at the last city where I worked, I have an appreciation for the amount of work that goes into protecting assets. Also, I have seen the devastation left after the waters recede. So this video was particularly interesting to me. I am sharing it here because anyone who regularly deals…