A few days ago, I noticed a Tweet indicating someone was extremely angry about a video on YouTube. Normally I would not click on something like this, but for some reason I followed the link and found myself watching a man who was very upset that the “government” was pulling out a basketball pole in…
Delivering Public Works Content Through Video
Over the last few years, there have been an increasing number of public works departments, vendors, and organizations taking advantage of video sharing sites. This has been made possible by newer video cameras that now fit into a pocket and websites like YouTube. These new tools and technologies allow anyone to easily capture videos and…
Remote Controlled Culvert Cleaning
 With budgets tight throughout the country and any serious economic recovery years away, states and municipalities are turning to technology to increase efficiency and save money. One example of innovation in action is the Mucker (its actual name is the  Microtraxx Tunnel Mucker). The Mucker is used to excavate sediment from culverts and was created by the Advanced…
Elgin Rocks on with Beet Juice and Social Media
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the great job the city of Elgin did in communicating information about their snow removal operations. Today I noticed Elgin has also set up a channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/cityofelgin. One of the videos, shown below, is particularly interesting to those of us involved in public works because…
What It’s Really Like to Work for Government
This week I came to the realization that the majority of people have a totally wrong view of what it’s like to work for government. I guess having worked in government for so long now, I take for granted all the rules, regulations, oversight, and general culture in the workplace. And I assumed with all…
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…
Adding Augmented Reality to Your Zoning Ordinance
Augmented reality holds promise and opportunity for the public works industry. With the development of this technology through efforts like the Smart Vidente Project and the recent release of development tools by Layar, we are moving closer to actual implementation on the job. And over the next few months, I plan to try to set…
Communicating a Snow Event
Most cities have formal procedures for handling winter storms including a public communications plan to issue press releases and answer phone calls throughout the event. But during the recent winter storm that swept across the U.S., Sean Stegall, city manager for the city of Elgin in Illinois, didn’t quite follow that traditional plan. Instead, from…
Standardizing our GIS Data
Years ago when I first started building a GIS for my last employer, the city of LaSalle, it was difficult to locate guidance for standardization of data structures. Fortunately since then several groups, countries, and organizations have been working to develop and publish standards for the industry. ESRI has offered resources on their Website for…
100-year-old Experiment in Concrete
Today I noticed this Tweet by @PCA_NECSA pointing to an article about a 100-year study about concrete started in 1910 by Owen Withey. This research took place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a school well-known for its engineering programs. And while there are concrete-related studies going on at universities all over the world, what is…