October, 2011 - Public Works Group Blog

October 31, 2011October 31, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 63

Day 63 – Happy Halloween!

Culvert Lining Project

Today I spent the day mostly troubleshooting some problems. The concrete subcontractor for the culvert project was on site. From what I was told by the project engineer, there seemed to be some confusion over what was to be done for the concrete headwall replacement. In a way it didn't surprise us because we had been wondering about the work too. We used a consultant to design the plans because of this structural component of the job. So we relied on their design for this work. However, we were surprised the plans showed little detail for this work. The consultant had provided a short special provision, but no drawing. Right before bidding, we added a detail on our own just because we thought the contractor would need some designation showing what was to be removed and replaced.

So today I called the consultant to ask if he would please explain to the contractor the structural design because as of today, the contractor had nothing to go on and was basically designing it as he formed it. And of course, we didn't think this was a good idea since he obviously was not a structural engineer nor was he performing any type of calculations. The consultant seemed to think the contractor should have designed the wall and submitted the design to us for approval. I didn't remember discussing this nor did I remember seeing this in the specs. And I did remember we had a cost set aside in the consultant's contract for structural design. And once the bid was approved, the consultant had billed the full amount for the project. So I imagined the structural work had been done.

Fortunately the consultant did send me a sketch by the end of the day showing the design, but unfortunately for some reason he had only designed and shown the headwall from about the midpoint of the pipe to the top. So I emailed him back to ask if he could please provide the design for the other half of the wall. Hopefully we will get the rest of the design tomorrow so the contractor can come back and finish the project.

After all that, we started wondering if we would have been better off designing the project in house and sending out just the structural part to a structural engineer. Then we could have more direct control over the design and would just be incorporating his design into the plans we develop.

Public Works Meeting

We also had our public works monthly meeting with the superintendents. We couldn't spend as much time going over everything like we normally do because a few of them had a meeting following this one, and we spent most of the meeting dicussing finances with our finance director. He was invited so we could ask questions about the budget to help us better understand how to track and code our invoices.

I also learned at the meeting that the whole state of Illinois is now considered to be in quarantine for the EAB so we can transport Ash tree logs/branches anywhere in the state. From what I understand they cannot be taken across state lines.

In this meeting I also asked about fixing another problem we have noticed. It's a small hole developing in a pavement that was built a few years back. Although it looked like at first we had no utilities there, after checking the plans, it now looks like it could be at the location of where an old inlet was supposed to have been removed and abandoned. It was decided to dig it up and see why it is failing – although we are not sure yet, some reasons could be the contractor never did properly remove it, or he did and failed to properly compact the fill. It was a project inspected by a consultant so we have no records showing exactly what was done.

Parking Lot Project

Today we heard from the consultant we have designing the lighting for our parking lot. After trying a few different types of lights, he has not been able to find a light that meets the city's photometric requirements. At this point, the only thing I can think of doing is to ask a lighting vendor to pick something out. That's what I used to do where I worked before so I'm hoping tomorrow we can call a few and ask them to help figure out what lights will work best for our lot.

Utility Permit

Finally, I received a call at the end of the day from a business downtown because they were concerned that a utility company was installing an underground conduit on private property without permission. I had signed a permit for the utility to do the work which included running a line down a portion of the city's alley, then turning to run through the property of the customer asking for service. Because the utility is responsible for making sure they are on the right property, I told the person calling that I would contact the utility and let them know they need to make sure they are on the right property. And when I called, the permit coordinator told me his manager was already on his way to the site.

October 28, 2011October 29, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 62

Day 62

Bus Rapid Transit

Today a few of our staff attended a meeting at Sherman Hospital in Elgin. The county arranged for the meeting to discuss bus rapid transit (BRT) along the Randall road corridor. It was a well attended discussion that lasted for most of the morning. A representative began the presentations by highlighting information about the new hospital. They have a 15-acre geothermal lake for heating/cooling that has saved them $1 million in operating costs annually. (You can read more cool facts about the lake here http://www.shermanhealth.com/geothermal_lake.php)

Next Kane county board chairman Karen McConnaughay summarized the county's work and vision for Randall road. Then Josh Ellis from the Metropolitan Planning Council shared with us his organization's work with studying bus rapid transit in Chicago. Earlier this year they released the report: Bus Rapid Transit: Chicago's New Route to Opportunity . His explanation of how they identified potential corridors was interesting and made sense.

Next up was the consultant who has been studying the implementation of bus rapid transit along Randall road – a long transportation corridor that links many of the larger communities in Kane County. It's interesting to me as someone who just moved back into the area a few years ago to listen to these studies and recommendations, remember what the corridor used to look like 30 years ago, then hear the background story of how Randall road developed. Many, many years ago when I lived and worked for the city of Aurora, I used to occasionally drive along Randall road to visit parks and the fairground. So I remember the rural character of the road that existed before development broke loose out here. Having left the area about 1985, I never saw how the road expanded to a four-lane urban section with major big-box stores replicated along it from Aurora to Elgin. But I've been told there was great effort put into making sure the corridor was streamlined for the movement of cars to the point of designing out pedestrian access. These past efforts seemed to have worked – the road moves a tremendous number of cars on a daily basis. However, it most definitely is not conducive to moving peds/bikes. And unfortunately, all those stores and amenities are huge attractions for the large population living on the other side – particularly teens who can't drive (I know from personal experience with my own children). Over the last few years, attempts have been made to bring the pedestrian back into the mix by adding sidewalks and a bus route with stops. But the pedestrian infrastructure has a long way to go, and that doesn't help with navigating the long distances between shopping centers. So, to summarize, the current trend is to "undo" the "success" of initial, car-centric development efforts in the corridor.

After hearing from the county's consultant, we broke into groups to further discuss the feasibility of implementing BRT in the corridor. Everyone seemed to conclude that yes, it could work, but… I think the "but" shows the success of BRT will be dependent on the market, the understanding and acceptance by the city governments and the public, the funding, and the specific characteristics of each area along the corridor. One key change that will have to occur is for the corridor to change from a sprawling retail center to an area of high density, mixed-use developments. This is because BRTs are dependent on the presence of a large population in need of transit. So the question is, do people want this part of their community to transition to a densely populated area with a mix of other uses in order to improve movement of pedestrians along the corridor? It's hard to say.

Finally, the morning ended with planners from PACE demonstrating the current challenges of navigating the current bus system along Randall road. The problems include a lack of shelters, sidewalks, and navigation aids. Fortunately there are plans to install shelters and sidewalks next year so this will greatly improve the experience.

Overall, readers of my blog can probably figure out what was on my mind the whole time – PRTs! or personal rapid transit. With the cost of BRTs at $2.5 to $24 million per mile, it definitely should be cost effective to instead implement a PRT system, and it would be less intrusive to the corridor. There are other benefits over a BRT such as not having to wait for a bus or learn a schedule and not having to tolerate a packed bus with no where to sit or place bags, and I am not so sure a PRT would require the change to high density. But of course, this is what is so frustrating about being in the US – most people here want to hang onto old technology while other countries are already implementing newer and better solutions that we refuse to even acknowledge. What makes it even more frustrating in this situation is that we were not talking about putting in a BRT system today – this is our county's vision for 2040! By that time, every other country in the world will have a PRT system, and we'll just be cutting the ribbon on a new BRT system. Oh well, I embedded a video showing the new PRT system at Heathrow. Maybe by 2040, I'll be retired and can move to a place like England!

Downtown Plan

After lunch we had another meeting to finish reviewing our downtown plan. There are a lot of changes we've made to the draft so the consultant will have a lot of work to revise it. Of course, the focus of our department is more on the transportation sections, but it's still interesting to listen and learn about the zoning and economic development side of it all.

APWA Meeting

At the end of the day I met with a few members of our local chapter of APWA. We have all volunteered to help out at a workshop that APWA will host on November 10th to teach team building and problem solving skills. It was a good and fun discussion, and everyone came up with great ideas to integrate into the day. If you are in the Chicago area and are interested in attending, the link to the information is here: Team Building and Problem Solving Skills

One side discussion that came up at our meeting was the lack of engineers in the US compared to other countries. Although we didn’t get into a lot of theories of why this is, I have to wonder if it does have something to do with what I mentioned in the BRT paragraphs above – the US is behind other countries in investigating and implementing new technology. I realize this is not in every industry, and from what I can tell, our military is impressively cutting edge. But these pockets of innovation don’t get transferred to the lives of the general public.

One suggestion I had made at the BRT meeting was to take the discussion into the schools – after all if they are talking about something for the year 2040, it’s the people in school now who may well be weighing in on the fate of Randall road. Better to have them aware of it and thinking about it now. And maybe it might get some interested in pursuing a career in transportation. But few seem interested in doing this or in seeing the benefits of involving schools in what we do. So we end up with kids in school who see adults implementing the same old solutions, avoiding innovation, and leaving them out of the discussion. Why in the world would they be interested in engineering! However, I realize there’s also the chance that places like China have more engineers because they are making kids study engineering. My co-worker is from there, and she said she had no choice what to study or where to work – that was all decided for her by the government.

On a lighter note, I did discover one of the other volunteers also plays World of Warcraft which also started a whole other side conversation!

October 27, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 61

Day 61

Balancing Budget Line Items

I finally completed the analysis of my budget and identified two line items that needed to have funds amended to agree with the actual expenditures. Fortunately there were amounts in related funds that I could amend to a lower amount so the overall change to my division's budget is zero. I'm also hoping that we get new software at some point so the whole process of monitoring the finances for our divisions is easier and more efficient.

Culvert Lining Project

We stopped out at our culvert lining project again today to check out the grouting operation. The crews created bulkheads at each end of the culvert. They had placed plastic pipes into the annular space through which they pumped grout. It took the whole day to pump a total of 18 cubic yards into the space. Next they will form up the headwalls and probably pour on Monday. The one photo shows the concrete truck discharging the grout to the pump and the line from the pump to the plastic pipe leading to the annular space. The other photo below is a close up of the grout line and the plastic piping leading into the annular space.

Prairie Green

Our city owns a large natural area called Prairie Green. It was purchased and developed through a bond several years ago after the citizens voted to pursue creating a green buffer at the city's west limits. Part of the area will eventually be a developed wetland – so far we only have a portion of the total wetland completed and are monitoring it. One of the issues we've been having is establishing the proper plant material because the area floods each Spring. So last week, our water department installed a culvert across a berm through the southern portion of the property. The plan is that this pipe will help drain the area that floods. Today the community development director, who is the project manager, and I visited the site to inspect the new culvert.

Miscellaneous work

I spent the rest of the day handling a lot of small, miscellaneous tasks such as checking out questions from developers, organizing my room and desk (it really needed it!), organizing email, helping our intern with measuring the proposed sidewalk/curb ramp work for next year's road project, and discussing with one of the street foremen what roads should be patched or paved next year. I also contacted our IT department to ask them to look at helping out one of my staff get their computer running better. For some reason it was taking forever to start up each morning. Fortunately it looks like they found the problem and were able to get it operating faster.

October 26, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 60

Day 60

Culvert Lining Project

Today was the day the liner was delivered for our culvert lining project. The placement of it seemed to go well. The contractor will finish grouting the annular space tomorrow. A resident did stop by to tell us we didn't know what we were doing, and it would never work, and he would sue everyone when water backed up into his home. Of course, he had no information to base his opinion on other than the new pipe is of a smaller diameter than the existing one. So the other staff members tried to explain the hydraulics and design information to give him an idea of why a smaller pipe can carry the same or more water, but he still didn't believe anyone. So he contacted the elected officials to express his concern. I let the engineer who designed the culvert project know about the complaint.

It's unfortunate, but this seems to happen so much where a group of professionals put in a lot of time designing a project, and then someone stops by and tells everyone they are all wrong, and it will never work. And they never seem to have any facts or information to base their opinion on.

I have to admit I have seen some poor designs in general executed over the past 30 years, however, none related to culvert sizing. And even those poor designs did not cause failures or damage – they were just not good designs and usually ended up impacting our operations and increasing our costs. So the city had to do more work to make the final product better and improve efficiency and cut costs. But I can't remember where there was property damage that could be attributed to bad design – maybe poor construction but not poor design.

Of course, the bottom line in a something like this is that anyone building or buying a home next to a creek increases their risk of having water entering their home during a storm. Particularly when openings like doors or windows are installed that allow for a way for water to enter the home. Culverts and other stormwater facilities are only designed to carry a certain storm intensity. If a storm occurs that is greater than the design storm, the culvert or other stormwater infrastructure will not convey all the water and could allow water to back up and enter nearby structures. So for our situation, whether we leave the old culvert or install a new one with equal or greater capacity, there will always be a risk that a storm occurs that will not be handled by the culvert and water could back up into homes – that is the risk of owning property next to a body of water.

Intersection Enhancements

We also met with a vendor who sells traffic control products. He did a great job showing us some alternatives for the intersection where we are trying to draw attention to a pedestrian crossing. One product we are particularly interested in is a sign and light called the "Enhancer." Here is the link to a site showing the product: http://www.statewidetrafficsafety.com/enhancer.asp.

Miscellaneous

We did manage to get our staff meeting in today. And I continued on trying to check our budget line items.

October 25, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 59

Day 59

Budget Analysis

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had our intern create a spreadsheet so I could track the money that has been spent in the accounts related to my division. Today I started going through that document checking it against invoices and making sure each entry was coded correctly. I also need to check the remaining balance against what was budgeted and arrange to make any necessary changes if needed. Overall, it's a cumbersome and time consuming process because our software is so outdated that most of the comparison and checking has to be done manually. But it's important to do so any overages or amendments to specific line items in the budget are addressed. So far it looks like I am off in our uniform rental line item, and it looks like this happened because the safety shoes were coded here instead of under safety equipment. So that's at least one adjustment I'll need to make.

City accounting is not something they taught us in engineering school. Yet it is an important part of my job. We had an economics class where we learned about calculating the value of money as it relates to interest and depreciation. But budgeting and accounting were not really covered, and from what I understand municipal accounting is very different from regular accounting. The first time I really got heavily involved in it was at my last job. Fortunately we had a really great comptroller who helped me understand how it all works. I can't quite pinpoint exactly how she did it, but I always felt I had a good handle on where we stood with finances in each account. We also had an outstanding accountant who was very patient and explained the things we couldn't figure out on our own. I'd have to say it took me about five years or more of working with it to feel I really had a good understanding of how it all worked. And every now and then I'll find out there's still something I didn't know.

Subdivision Meeting

Several city staff members met with representatives of a bank that has an interest in an unfinished subdivision. Not all the improvements have been completed in this development, and the city still holds a letter of credit for the remaining work. Because nothing has been done for several years and no further building has taken place, the city is requesting the work be completed. So this group came in to find out what was left to be done. We need to send them the plans for the subdivision, and then they are going to come back with a proposal for moving forward.

Water Main Change

We had a call today from a contractor who is bidding on a water extension that will be built by an agency other than the city. He requested that we allow changes to the material used for the water main and changes to the location. Because we did not design the project – only approved it, we suggested he contact the engineer who did the design work. Our concern was we were not the designers – only the reviewers – and an IEPA permit has already been issued for the work. Later in the day we talked to the engineer and gave him an idea of what types of changes we would possibly approve. And we discussed the need to get a new IEPA permit if necessary. He is going to research what could be done and if a new permit would be needed. If any changes are made, he will also send us amended plans for approval.

ADA Ramps for Road Project

Because there always seems to be so much confusion over how curb ramps should be built to comply with the ADA law, I am thinking about drawing up some details for specific intersections to help everyone better understand what needs to be done at certain locations. Today I took our intern out to show him what information we would need from the field so that we could prepare these details.

October 24, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 58

Day 58

Tree Contractor Started

The Emerald Ash Bore has been in our community for a few years now. But the Ash trees really didn't show severe signs of infestation and damage until last year. Then unfortunately it seemed like they all died this summer so our council decided to make the removal of ash trees a priority. Because we could not remove the trees fast enough with our own crews, we hired a contractor to help out. Today was his first day. Unfortunately he must have forgotten the instructions given to him prior to starting regarding shutting down lanes along the state highway during rush hour. One of the engineers I work with had driven out to his job around 8 am and called to let me know the tree contractor had closed a lane and traffic was backed up. I contacted the foreman who manages the street crews, and he went out to let the contractor know he probably needs to work elsewhere during rush hour.

Reclamite Application

Later in the morning the contractor we hired to apply a pavement restoration product showed up to clean the pavement and apply the material to the road. Because this was the first time we have applied Reclamite to a road in our city, a few of us went to the site to watch the operation. It went smoothly and did not take a long time. The disruption to the residents also seemed to be minimal. We had let them know last Friday that we would be doing this today so it seemed that they were prepared for it. It will be interesting to watch the pavement perform over the next few years. The contractor said that not only does this material help delay failure of the pavement, but it will help the road shed water faster. He also said we will notice the snow melting faster on this road than on others.

Downtown Plan

During the afternoon several staff members met to discuss the draft downtown plan prepared by our consultants. I've been disappointed throughout the process that the engineering firm helping the planning consultant did not ever talk to us about the plan. They ended up suggesting "improvements" that really don't work with what we have. It almost makes me wonder if they use the same recommendations for every community. For example one suggestion was to use a pedestrian lead time at the signals. But this really can't work because we have a protected left turn that leads off the green time. So if we let pedestrians go a few seconds early, they would get hit by the cars taking a left turn. In the end, the plan will be good, but it seems that getting to that point has taken our staff a lot more work because of a lack of communication or understanding on the consultants part.