Public Works: Public Works Manual 2012

7% of North American communities lack GIS map

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:57:16 EST

For several years, Bartlett & West Engineers Inc. has asked North American communities if they have a geographic information system (GIS) and how they use it.

EPA's WaterSense label certifies outdoor water-use products

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:52:29 EST

The U.S. EPA’s WaterSense label, which has typically been used for bathroom appliances, is for the first time being used to certify outdoor water-use products: weather-based irrigation controllers.

Americans ambivalent about their drinking water

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:59:39 EST

Americans say they'd stomach an 11% increase in water rates to shore up our ailing buried infrastructure so we're no longer losing 2 trillion gallons of clean water every year. That would generate $5.4 billion annually to repair, replace, and/or rehabilitate broken and leaking assets — four times the federal allocation for drinking water programs.

Centrifugal or progressive-cavity sludge pump?

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:59:12 EST

Pumping is the second-largest expense, after labor, for most treatment plants, representing in some cases almost half the facility's annual operating costs.

Can your community afford adaptive traffic control?

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:13:15 EST

Adaptive traffic control solutions (ATCS) are an artificial intelligence product enabling traffic signals to adapt to actual, real-time demand rather than sticking to a fixed schedule. By giving vehicles the green light when and where necessary, “smart” signals can provide a 40-to-1 return on investment through reduced travel times, fuel usage, emissions, and accidents.

Static Web maps vs. dynamic Web GIS

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:56:18 EST

You and your team may be using Google, MapQuest, or Microsoft's Bing Maps to identify the exact location of an event that requires attention. Type the address of, say, a broken water main into the service and you get a map of that location.

Five landfill compaction best practices

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:46:48 EST

At its root, the landfill business is a simple mathematical calculation. A landfill receives a permit for a certain number of acres and is relegated to how deep it can dig and how high it can go. The result is a finite number of cubic yards of space that, depending on anticipated waste stream and compaction densities, determines the landfill's projected life expectancy.

Choosing a salt storage building

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:55:44 EST

Winter's over, but planning for road and sidewalk salt storage now will help next year's deicing activities run smoothly.

Creating stable and healthy roadsides

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:55:09 EST

Weeds and other undesirable vegetation like to make their home along roadsides. But their presence can block motorists' line of sight and promote the spread of invasive species onto adjacent properties. Excessive vegetation also can damage roadbeds by creating erosion, potholes, and flooding due to improper road drainage off the surface.

Proper installation of corrugated HDPE pipe

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:54:39 EST

In most respects, installing corrugated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe is like working with any other material: The pipe system's strength is a combination of the pipe itself and the backfill envelope. Proper construction maximizes the drainage capabilities designed into the pipe by maintaining alignment and load-carrying ability.

Pavement preservation stretches ailing road budgets

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:54:08 EST

Government agencies are fighting more today than ever to get the most out of their shrinking road budgets. The options are pretty clear, especially now that the word has been out for long enough about pavement preservation.

Saving water is a walk in the park

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:48:24 EST

Residential outdoor water use in the United States accounts for more than 7 billion gallons a day —that's more than 2.5 trillion gallons in a year — mainly for landscape irrigation. Yet experts say as much as half of that water is wasted. It is lost to evaporation, wind, or runoff due in part to inefficient watering methods and irrigation systems.

All about the cloud

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:47:27 EST

As organizations look to save money on information technology (IT) costs, cloud computing has proven to be a popular method for IT efficiency and cost savings. Whether your organization is hoping to cut costs on running applications, or to store GIS data without the hassle of purchasing new equipment and taking up additional in-house resources, cloud computing may be the answer.

Five commonly overlooked but crucial lift-safety tips

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:49:39 EST

If there were an incident in your garage involving a vehicle lift, the OSHA investigator would have three broad questions: What did you know? When did you know it? What did you do about it?

The greener, cheaper way to prevent erosion

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:46:17 EST

The time-honored solution to roadside erosion is to evaluate underlying reasons for erosion, then address them with a healthy dose of engineering, concrete, and steel. But that solution is facing challenges as state DOTs are being asked to do more with fewer resources. At the same time, many transportation departments are seeking new environmentally conscious options, which has opened the door to technologically advanced and economical solutions.

Three ways to improve pump performance

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:45:43 EST

The most common pump design available, centrifugal pump, uses centrifugal force to discharge fluid into a pipe. Coupled to the engine's crankshaft, a rotating disk with vanes slings liquid outward, producing a pressure change that causes liquid to flow through the pump. This mechanism, called an impeller, is housed within a volute. The volute collects and directs the flow of liquid from the impeller and increases the pressure of the high-velocity water flowing from the vanes of the impeller.

What does ‘trailer capacity’ really mean?

Tue, 2 Oct 2012 04:24:41 EST

Many people are unaware that there are no industry standards for setting the weight capacity of low-bed trailers — those commonly used to transport large loads, such as precast concrete culverts, pipe, and structural bridge elements. In fact, not all trailers with the same stated capacity can safely haul the same loads. The determining factor is load concentration, which refers to how much of the trailer deck length is needed to support the weight of a load, and what form that load will take.