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Want to know the best places to enjoy a great lunch in Chicago? Don't reach for the city's Zagat Survey, or flip to the
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Keeping water flowing to thousands of residents is a demanding job for the Chicago Department of Water Management. With 45 miles of new water mains installed each year, keeping up with how much water flows—and determining whether customers are properly paying for their water and sewer service—can...
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Living in the large city of Chicago, I'm very aware of how much solid waste there is—on the streets and in the alleys, where my trash is collected. Those refuse collectors stop by my house only on Tuesdays, but I see the giant blue Streets and Sanitation trucks scattered around the city's...
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The growing emphasis on point source pollution control has focused increasing attention on stormwater runoff. As a result, public works directors all over the country are now addressing the issue, some more eagerly than others. One of the most ardent clean water proponents in northern Illinois is...
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Chicago's Millennium Park is a different sort of public works project. Though the park is now owned and operated by the city, many of the attractions were paid for by private donations—some of them in the multimillion-dollar range. And the park is really five separate structures—two underground...
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Landscape and park designers often run into strange problems when designing into an existing space. For Paul W. Bouchard, the problem was hawthorn trees. “The preservation of existing trees was the biggest challenge concerning the orientation and layout of the project, which includes the splash pad...
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In business today outsourcing is common; public works departments are no different. No department by itself can handle all of the things that are thrown at it—from planning new parks to rebuilding outdated parking facilities to maintaining water treatment plants.
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For the Cook County Highway Department, finding a durable, cost-effective solution for heavily traveled bus stops along Chicago's Western Avenue required creative thinking. Like other stops, these are constantly subjected to pushing, shoving, and rutting from the stress created by the starting and...
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Cheer up. Spending an afternoon being down in the dumps isn't nearly as bad as you might think. After all, with trash galore, sewers, and waste streams to visit, how could you feel low?
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A lot has happened in the past year since we named our first 50 Trendsetters. The transportation bill passed (finally!). The Department of Homeland Security saw a changing of the guard. The standoff in Iraq continued. And 50 more people made a huge impact on the public works industry.