SCHEDULE AND RECORDED PRESENTATIONS
The Arizona Chapter APWA Free Virtual Summer Series is an eight-week program that takes place at 10:30 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday in July and August. Starting on July 6th and ending on August 26th we will feature live and interactive presentations on a variety of educational and entertaining topics. All sessions will be recorded and posted below.
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JULY PRESENTATIONS
TUESDAY, JULY 6
Top Five Ways to Mess Up Your Agency’s Pavement Management System
Description: The presentation will focus on the most common errors made by agencies when either implementing a new pavement management system or updating an existing system. The most common mistakes made by agencies at all phases of the pavement management process will be addressed, including pavement management system selection, pavement inventory development, GIS integration, pavement condition surveys, pavement condition forecasting, pavement maintenance and rehabilitation planning, and presenting pavement needs to elected officials and the public at large.
Speaker: Kurt A. Keifer, Infrastructure Management Services
THURSDAY, JULY 8
PHX Sky Train® – Stage 2: Continuing the Gold Standard for Sustainability in Transportation
Description: A discussion on the Stage 2 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Sky Train is the last stage of a 5.5-mile-long automated people mover that spans the entire length of the airport. Stage 2 is currently under construction and anticipated completion and operation is mid-2022.The project uses no taxpayer dollars and is funded by rental car facility charges and airline passenger facility charges. The PHX Sky Train® has received three sustainability awards. Stage 1 was awarded LEED Gold, Stage 1A was award LEED Silver, and recently Stage 2 was awarded Envision Gold. The City of Phoenix is committed to design and developing sustainable infrastructure. When complete, the PHX Sky Train® will reduce the daily vehicle count in the center of the airport by an estimated 20,000 vehicles per day, reduce greenhouse gases by estimated 6,000 tons, connect to regional transit systems and improve the travel experience of 14 million Sky Train riders each year.
Speaker: William Peterson, Gannett Flemming
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City of Phoenix Street Maintenance Worker Apprenticeship Program: How Apprenticeship Programs Can Deliver the Next Generation of Maintenance Employees
Description: In a completive job market, see how the City of Phoenix partnered with the State of Arizona to launch a Street Maintenance Worker Apprenticeship program to address employee attraction and retention. The apprentice program can be the entry point to a successful career in street transportation with a nationally recognized credential for the participant.
Speakers: Michael Pinder, City of Phoenix
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Agency Showcase: City of Phoenix CIP Update by Ryan Stevens, City of Phoenix Civil Engineer III.
TUESDAY, JULY 13
Enterprise Asset Management: Risk and Reward
Description: Risk management is everyone’s responsibility. The cost associated with asset maintenance, failure, and downtime can be daunting. However, today we have tools such as GIS, CMMS, EAMS, IoT, and Digital Twins among others which allow us to mitigate the risk over the life of our assets, and lower the lifecycle costs of designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and replacing those assets. Using real world examples to demonstrate each point, you will learn how with cost effective and approachable changes to your processes and implementing current technologies to support them, you can lower your risk and bring value and cost savings back to your organization.
Speaker: Steve Bein, Psomas
THURSDAY, JULY 15
How Secure Are Your Facilities? What Your Risk and Resilience Assessment Failed to Tell You
Description: Most drinking water utilities completed or are completing Risk and Resilience Assessments (RRAs), which focus on high-consequence, low-likelihood events. This presentation explores how the City of Phoenix’ Water Services Department conducted facility security inspections on water and wastewater assets using a customized security inspection tool to identify and address more than likely but still consequential events.
Speakers: Joseph Banzon, City of Phoenix Water Services Department / Hector Vasquez and Kevin Campanella, Burgess & Niple
TUESDAY, JULY 20
Embracing Diversity and Inclusion
Description: Diversity and Inclusion is a hot topic in today’s world, and its not an easy topic to discuss. Learn why it’s important to embrace Diversity and Inclusion, simple Diversity and Inclusion fixes for Conferences, and what resources are available for promoting Diversity and Inclusion.
Speaker: Casey Ambrose, Town of Gilbert
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Agency Showcase: Town of Gilbert CIP Update by Casey Ambrose, Town of Gilbert Project Manager
THURSDAY, JULY 22
Practical QC/QA of Automated Pavement Condition Assessments - Local Agency Best Practices
Description: The presentation will focus on local agency best practices for: (1) establishing and defining agency goals and objectives for routine pavement condition assessments; (2) evaluating modern imaging technologies – including artificial intelligence – used for pavement condition assessments; and (3) developing and implementing a proactive QA/QC program for pavement condition assessments.
Speaker: Kurt A. Keifer, Infrastructure Management Services
TUESDAY, JULY 27
Solving the Underlying Problems That Cause Roads To Fail
Description: Accelerated lithification technology supports a high-performance road system that transfers surface course structural credits into the road's foundation. A lithified base outperforms traditional foundations by providing super-high strength, increased ductility, water resistance, decreased porosity, increased binding potential and durability. Lithification customizes and optimizes the roadway's mix design with high-performance criteria. Since roads wear from the top down, fail from the bottom up, a lithified base provides the foundation required to construct a “perpetual road or perpetual pavement”, whereby future maintenance is limited to the road’s surface, so as not to have to go back and rebuild the road’s foundation.
Speaker: Robert Sherwin, Lithified Technologies
Agency Showcase: City of Tempe CIP Update by Gregg Kent, Principal Engineer and CIP Design Manager
THURSDAY, JULY 29
Assessing Infrastructure and Optimizing Operations at Chandler’s Pecos Surface Water Treatment Plant
Description: The Chandler Pecos Surface Water Treatment Plant (CPSWTP) has been in operation over 30 years is at buildout capacity. Recent regulations have tightened requirements for treatment that present challenges to CPSWTP, requiring assessment and optimization of unit process performance to ensure ongoing compliance. Seasonal variability in the surface water source has contributed to operational constraints, but Chandler has taken a proactive approach to review alternatives and implement solutions to enhance existing treatment processes before moving ahead with capital investments. This presentation addresses the assessment and optimization studies to maintain high capacity and quality at the SWTP.
Speakers: Heather Tugaoen and Maria Brady, Stantec
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ADOT LPA: Local Agency Lessons Learned
Description: In the state of Arizona, fewer than ten entities are certified to self-administer federal funds for infrastructure projects and navigate the NEPA process. All remaining municipalities and counties must have federally funded projects administered through larger agencies such as ADOT. Federalization of the project introduces different processes to be followed, especially for environmental clearance and right-of-way acquisition. These more stringent requirements often require additional documentation to ensure compliance. In 2020, the City of Apache Junction successfully constructed a 0.5-mile segment of Southern Avenue through the ADOT Local Public Agency (LPA) program. This project followed the ADOT project development process for scoping, design, and construction to buildout Southern Avenue to a full arterial section including bike lanes, sidewalks and curb ramps, and a closed drainage system. This presentation will navigate the challenges of this project, a sneak peek into coordinating with utility companies for utility relocations; Educating a small, local utility company who was unaware of typical project processes; Installation of an underground oil-water separator to meet first flush requirements and eliminate the need for new right-of-way; Maintaining access to a hospital emergency room during a pandemic. These lessons learned (and more!) will be covered during the presentation.
Speakers: Raquel Schatz, City of Apache Junction / David Lenzer, Burgess & Niple
AUGUST PRESENTATIONS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3
Millennial Retention – Creating a Successful Corporate Organization for the Future
Description: Attracting and keeping top millennial talent is a burning issue for leaders… by 2020 they will be 46% of the working population. Forty-six percent. What are you doing to engage and retain half of your workforce? What is the long-term damage and cost in not engaging staff? How do you mentor for future success? Stantec is proactively addressing the engagement issue launching a “Young Professionals Group”, ultimately branding into the Developing Professionals Group (DPG). Starting an organization within an organization is tough: it needs a compelling argument, backing from corporate staff, and legitimacy. But nothing can be spread without a solid message and platform; it must be carefully curated to catch fire. Then, it needs the torchbearers – local champions who encourage staff to start chapters and get involved. This presentation details the launch of DPG, current DPG activities and involvement, and why it has been a powerful platform to keep younger staff engaged and connected to Stantec leadership. Lack of company culture and engagement is not something that can be solved overnight.
Speaker: Taylor Ahrensdorf, Stantec
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Valley Metro Operations and Maintenance Facility Expansion Design Build Project
Description: Valley Metro’s Operations and Maintenance Center (OMC) will expand its existing operations and maintenance facilities to support the planned build-out of the regional rail system. This expansion is intended to accommodate the full fleet size of 90 rail vehicles by 2023. The OMC facility is comprised of the Maintenance of Equipment (MOE) building, the Maintenance of Way (MOW) building, Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) cleaning station, LRV wash station, and the rail yard. Valley Metro is the Owner and Operator of the OMC Facility and will administer the project. The City of Phoenix owns the land where the facility currently resides and leases it to Valley Metro. The project is being delivered through a design-build team, led by Hensel Phelps, with Gannett Fleming, Inc. being the lead designer. The site currently has controlled access and will be expanded within its current property limits, with the exception of the south edge of the site where the work will encroach upon ADOT right of way. Negotiations with ADOT for a license to utilize the land or follow through with an acquisition are ongoing between Valley Metro and ADOT. This expansion project consists of: MOE facility expansion, MOW facility expansion, increased on-site parking, added storage and circulation track for LRVs, MSE retaining wall and drainage channel improvements, new LRV cleaning platform, new traction power substation (TPSS), upgrades to existing LRV wash station and general site and utility upgrades.
Speakers: Stephanie Templeton and Matt Gibbons, Gannett Fleming
THURSDAY, AUGUST 5
Is Losing Your Skilled Team Members Getting You Down?
Description: Is losing your skilled team members getting you down? Nationwide Public Works organizations are facing a skilled labor shortage as the baby-boom generation enters retirement. Across the field of public works, key team members preparing for retirement will take with them a lifetime of technical and institutional knowledge as well as leadership experience that can be hard to find in the current workforce. Furthermore, fewer young people are choosing the trades professions. Coconino County Public Works is proactively working toward closing the talent gap by implementing retention and recruitment strategies as well as succession planning to increase availability of an experienced and capable workforce. CCPW’s new Operator and Mechanic compensation programs and training strategies along with investments in our culture and leadership development of our workforce has shown positive results in the areas of recruitment, employee engagement and retention. We look forward to sharing our strategies, lessons learned, impacts and next steps.
Speakers: Lucinda Andreani, Christopher Tressler, and Eslir Musta, Coconino County
Agency Showcase: Coconino County CIP Update
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10
Challenges Constructing a 60-inch PVC Force Main
Description: Aspects of the design, construction, and testing of a 60-inch PVC force main, which is the largest pressure pipe diameter manufactured using PVC, will be presented. Due to the size of the force main, there were some challenges associated with design, installation, and testing of the force main. These challenges included design of some unique thrust blocks, redesign and fabrication of PVC to steel flanged coupling adaptors by the manufacturer, fabrication of bends to minimize the need for thrust blocks, and the hydraulic capacity testing of the pipeline. The methodology used to select and then determine the opening and closing time for the control valves; challenges associated with design, construction, and testing of the force main; and how those challenges were addressed will be reviewed and presented.
Speaker: Mike Georgalas, Stantec
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A Public/Private Partnership to Improve Safety
Description: The community of Bellemont, located along I-40 11 miles west of Flagstaff in Coconino County, is a rural area with one paved ingress/egress. Trucks queuing for the busy Pilot Travel Center block the intersection, restricting access to the bedroom community. The Pilot also houses the mail pick-up location. To address the access and safety issues, the County has partnered with local businesses and stakeholders to develop a solution that addresses immediate needs and accommodates future growth in Bellemont. Learn how the County leveraged private investments to address safety concerns on public roads!
Speakers: Nicholas Hall, Coconino County / David Lenzer, Burgess & Niple
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12
Bridging the Funding Gap for a Border Transformation
Description: Investing in the modernization and transformation of POEs is a key priority in the US. Many federal, state, and local stakeholders support these upgrades, but it can be challenging to move from the ideal of upgrading to the detailed design and actual project execution. Frequently, the analysis and final plan are the responsibility of the small communities adjacent to the POEs. The City of Douglas (City) in Cochise County is an example of a small community that has stepped up to move from an opportunity today into project reality tomorrow. To be successful, the City needs to cultivate a network of partners that provide technical and financial support. Money secured now from federal, state, and local sources will help make certain that appropriate analyses are completed and the best, most cost-effective, and adequate POE infrastructure is developed. Our presentation will describe the City’s efforts to advance PIE projects, create economic opportunity, and provide essential services to this small border community.
Speakers: Amy Broughton and Colleen Ruiz, Stantec
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Landslide Mitigation Methods
Description: Shallow slope failures along roadway shoulders, retaining walls, and bridge abutments along our nation’s roadways present a real challenge to engineers, planners, and designers. Repairs must be completed quickly, under constrained budgets, and often using limited design information. These problems strain ever-dwindling maintenance budgets, and many of the “traditional” repair methods are difficult to employ on smaller rural roads without disrupting existing transportation infrastructure and/or disturbing environmentally sensitive streams or private property. This 30-minute presentation will outline some innovative geohazard mitigation methods, technologies, and contracting methods that are relatively low cost but robust enough to achieve a standard engineering design life and discuss relevant technologies. Contracting methods discussed will consist of on-call emergency response, design-build-warranty repairs, and job-order contracting.
Speakers: Brandon Guite and Justin Petersen, Geostabilization Intl.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17
Saving a Structure – Innovations in Strengthening and Protection
Description: The Western Canal Rehabilitation and Strengthening Project was an innovative approach to save an existing structure crossing mainline I-10 just south of US-60 in Phoenix, Arizona. Instead of replacement, the team strengthened the structure using Fiber Reinforced Polymers, and extended the life of the structure using Cathodic Protection as preliminary work for the I-10 Broadway Curve Project. Construction occurred under live traffic, mitigating maintenance of traffic needs. The approach was developed in coordination with the designer, ADOT, and SRP to find a practical solution to a difficult project.
Speakers: Jason Carlaftes, WSP / Jorge Garcia, SRP / Mo Ehsani, QuakeWrap
Agency Showcase: City of Chandler CIP Update by Kim Moon
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19
APWA Leadership Framework: Inspiring the Best Collective Effort from Individuals
Description: APWA National Leadership & Management Committee has been rolling out a new Leadership Framework to encourage the Public Works community, its professionals, practitioners, policymakers, and decision-makers at all levels of government to demonstrate an extraordinary way to lead. This session would review the framework, highlighting opportunities for your organization to use these to improve outcomes. Leaders can use these practices to think beyond just the daily grind in public works, and they don’t require expensive consultants or unreasonable staff time to incorporate into your everyday workday. The presentation will provide the leadership concepts with real life examples to help bridge the gap – demonstrating how you can start small and build momentum within your public works departments..
Speakers: Nancy Cole, Pima County / Jeff Kramer, Ascension Leadership / Elia Twigg, CONSOR Engineers / Bill Stogsdill, Director of Public Works for the City of Fairway, Kansas
Agency Showcase: Pima County CIP Update by Nancy Cole
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24
Diversity Committee: Our Advice to Young Professionals
Description: Join the Young Professionals group for a presentations on how young professionals and managers could better approach communication within your organization. The presentation will include four different scenarios with two actors - a young professional and a manager - acting out different scenarios that may be experienced in your office. Panel Members will be provide input to both actors on how to better improve scenarios and audience participation is encouraged.
Moderator: Cory Steele, Strand Associates
Presenters: Dave Sabers, C&A Group / Nicole Calabrese, Entellus
Agency Showcase: City of Mesa CIP Update by Shahir Safi and Stephen Ganstrom
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26
Cavasson Powerline Channel Design Evolution: Concept to Completion
Description: The presentation summarizes the design development and evolution of the Cavasson Powerline Channel improvements. Due to development agreement-imposed time constraints, a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) project delivery method was selected for this project. Since the CMAR delivery method can be considered more expensive than a typical design-bid-build (DBB) delivery method, the design optimization process included the hydraulic evaluation of numerous channel linings, profiles, and geometries to keep overall costs in line with the original construction cost estimates. This presentation will follow the project design evolution from Design Concept Report (DCR) through approved plans for the section of channel from Thompson Peak Parkway to Hualapai Drive.
Speaker: James G. Taillon, WOODPATEL
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Underground Utility Coordination and Traffic Planning with Civil Information Modeling (CIM)
Description: Although traditionally utilized for vertical construction coordination, Haydon Building Corp’s virtual construction subsidiary H3D Solutions, is pushing the bounds of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology for use on heavy civil projects to add value for project owners. In this session, we’ll be exploring several uses of Civil Information Modeling (CIM) on two underground utility relocation projects, including boring under an existing box culvert in an active roadway and working around incompletely documented existing utilities of an aging infrastructure.
Speakers: Jason Young, H3D Solutions / Chance Raser, PE, Haydon Building Corp
Agency Showcase: City of Surprise CIP Update by Kristin Tytler, Michael Boule, and Jeff Martin