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Process improvement, through a strategic business plan, is imperative for public works departments to survive the future amid funding and manpower constraints. An effective strategic plan should have metrics, an impartial catalyst and the proper upper management philosophy. However, its most important element is a 'just do it' attitude, which involves the realization that long-term process improvement is needed if customers' expectations are to be met. The Strategic Business Plan experience of the public works department of the Naval Education and Training Center is discussed., Reduced staffing. Stagnant funding. Aging infrastructure. For many public works departments (PWDs) across the country, this is reality. Faced with doing more with less, getting bogged down in the daily [...]

The statistics tell a dreadful story. One of 84 children born in 1998 will die violently in a motor vehicle crash, and one of every ten children will be injured [...]

All wastes are not created equal. Treating different types of wastes differently can benefit industrial and residential customers alike as illustrated by Modesto, California 's recently completed Cannery Segregation Project. [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved two Project XL ventures. Under the program, sponsors test cleaner and cheaper methods to attain environmental results than those achievable under current regulations and [...]

The International Joint Commission, which advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on water issues, warned that for the second year in a row, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River users [...]

Sewer line excavation in a tight space. Installing a water meter between buildings. Concrete repair in an urban intersection. You name e it the municipal job at hand often requires [...]

The town of Plymouth Massachusetts has chosen USFilter Operating Services (Houston, Texas) to design, build, operate, and maintain a new three-mgd wastewater treatment plant for the community. The partnership is [...]

A comprehensive stormwater management plan is being developed by public works officials in Tucson, AZ, to solve the stormwater runoff created by heavy rainfall. Aside from featuring watershed development and water quality control management, the plan will also involve the community in public works projects. The HEC-1 software from the US Army Corps of Engineers was chosen to house all the information that will be collected from 55 watersheds. The computer program will be used in assessing possible alternatives to the management plan., WITH only 12 inches of rainfall a year, you would think that Tucson, Arizona, would not have a stormwater problem; but when it rains it seems to come all at [...]

Mr. Husselbee is a senior engineer at HDR Engineering Inc.'s Virginia Beach, Virginia, office. Mr. Norman, M. ASCE, is Chief of Construction for the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Virginia Beach, [...]

When much of the U.S. is facing drought conditions, and the security of reservoirs and pipelines is a matter of some concern, water is on the minds of many. The [...]