Thought Leadership

How pavement management is like owning and caring for a backyard deck

A Q&A with Bart Fischer, Senior Public Administrator and Mike Rief, Sr. Vice President of Construction Services.

With summer fast approaching it’s comforting to know that we’re free of icy road conditions for the next several months.  As I drove over a recent pothole and began noticing the sand and salt being swept off the roads in my community, I wanted to learn more about pavement management and its impact on city budgets and plans. I sat down with Mike Rief, WSB’s Sr. Vice President of Construction Services to better understand the importance of pavement management in our communities.

BF: Why is pavement management so important for communities?

MR: It all comes down to planning and budgeting. The predictability that a pavement management plan brings a community is the biggest benefit. If a pavement management plan exists, minor improvements and maintenance can potentially double the lifespan of a roadway.  Without any maintenance or improvements, a typical road will last about 20 years. Instead, with a pavement management plan, a community could extend that lifespan to about 40 years, maximizing their investment.

BF: That’s interesting. What exactly does a pavement management plan entail?

MR: I’ve found that comparing pavement to caring for a backyard deck has a lot of impact. We start by building a deck – similar to how we start building a road.  We form the foundation, wood for the deck and pavement for the road.

BF: We love our outdoor spaces in Minnesota! This is a great comparison. So, there is a preventative maintenance component after the foundation is formed?

MR: Exactly. Once the foundation is formed, we perform preventative maintenance.  In the case of a deck, we stain and seal it. For pavement, we seal the pavement cracks and perform surface treatments.

BF: What happens if a board rots out? How would you compare that in the pavement scenario?

MR: I like to call this the preservation stage of the pavement management plan. The best comparison to replacing a rotting board would be performing a mill and overlay on the road. A mill and overlay is a type of street maintenance that requires the removal of the top 2” of a street and the addition of a new layer of bituminous pavement in it’s place.

BF: When does it make sense to do a full road reconstruction?

MR: Yes, the reconstruction phase of the process is inevitable, but can be extended through preventative maintenance and preservation. Eventually, we’ve repaired the deck so many times and it makes sense to stop investing more dollars into it.  At some point, reconstruction is necessary, but through pavement management, it’s decades out and has been budgeted for.

BF: It really makes a lot of sense when you explain it in that way. Any other benefits of pavement management?

MR: I mentioned it above, but predictability is invaluable. There are huge capital investment benefits to implementing a pavement management plan.  It helps with budgeting, planning for development and growth and also can increase property values. I recommend any community, regardless of size, consider pavement management in the future.

Partnering with the city of Hugo to create a sustainable water reuse strategy

By Mark Erichson, Pete Willenbring, Kendra Fallon and Ray Theiler, WSB

About 10 years ago, the City of Hugo was looking for feasible options to reduce the amount of potable water used to irrigate green spaces within the city. At that time, approximately one-half of the water the city pumped from its municipal wells was used for irrigation. The city was also facing the need to add wells, water towers, and treatment to provide enough capacity for this use. Studies indicated the cost for these facilities was going to increase water bills significantly, and the MDNR was reluctant to grant additional groundwater appropriation permits in the area.       

To address this issue, the city and WSB staff developed a list of potential options, and the city commissioned WSB to focus on completing  a series of studies to determine if it would be technically, financially, and politically feasible to collect, store, and re-use stormwater runoff instead of city well water for this purpose. Furthermore, the study was focused on potentially utilizing existing stormwater retention and treatment ponds that are currently in-place throughout the city for this purpose. As part of these studies, initial evaluations focused on the ability to implement this type of program for the city’s largest irrigation users. These evaluations found that providing stormwater for re-use to these users was indeed feasible, and furthermore, when properly set-up, residents were enthusiastic supporters of the practice and program. Following these initial successes, our team began to coordinate with city staff and local partners to fund, design, and construct other reuse systems. 

Reducing, reusing, and replenishing water resources is now a city prioritized conservation practice. All new development projects are required to collect and treat stormwater, and install stormwater reuse systems for irrigation when feasible and practical. This reuse also significantly reduces the volume of stormwater and the pollutant load that is discharged downstream of the sites, further benefiting downstream natural resources such as wetlands, lakes, and rivers. 

We continue to offer guidance about sites that may be a good fit for reuse systems. When these are identified, we work with city staff and the local watershed district to identify and secure grant funding for new projects and encourage developers to implement water conservation practices such as stormwater reuse. Several private developments have been able to take advantage of this partnership, including the Oneka Ridge Golf Course and the Water’s Edge Homeowners Association, a 1,000 unit housing development.  Grants have funded between 25 and 85 percent of reuse projects. Where projects utilize water reuse which exceeds what is required for stormwater management, volume reduction credits are banked. These credits are tracked by the City and can be purchased by developers for future projects where site constraints make onsite stormwater treatment difficult. 

Shifting the public perception of water reuse is important to a project’s success. We partnered with city officials to facilitate neighborhood meetings to educate residents on water reuse and its benefits. Public living in proximity to these reuse projects will benefit greatly by improved water quality in adjacent downstream water bodies, while also reducing reliance on our stressed groundwater resources.

Stormwater reuse offers a number of financial and environmental benefits to the city of Hugo and its residents. By identifying and utilizing alternate water resources to reduce potable water demands, the city is able to reduce the stress placed on its water system, possibly postponing or eliminating the need for additional water infrastructure improvements such as wells, towers and size of trunk watermain facilities.

As groundwater demands increase, Hugo and WSB will continue to work together to change local water use practices and attitudes towards water reuse and water conservation. 

Please contact us to learn more about how to incorporate more water reuse strategies in your community.

Starting a sustainable cycle

A virtual webinar on launching sustainable initiatives.

Organizations of all types and sizes are taking a more proactive stance on sustainability issues to meet evolving customer needs and making sustainably minded changes that can increase their revenue, reduce costs and build new markets and service. But for many one question complicates their efforts; how to get started?

In partnership with Finance & Commerce, WSB recently hosted a virtual webinar that provided examples of sustainable processes and how they came to be.

Panelists included:

• Bryan Baer, City Administrator, City of Hugo, MN
• Steve Compton, CFO and EVP at Sevana Bioenergy
• Bruce Loney, Board Manager, Prior Lake-Spring Lake Watershed District
• Moderated by: Amy Fredregill, Director of Sustainability, WSB

During the webinar, our panelists led us through their proactive approaches to sustainability initiatives including:

• How the city of Hugo is using less water and reducing costs despite its growing population
• How a dairy farm is increasing their revenue by making and selling biogas
• How mitigating invasive carp is leading to improved water quality in a Watershed District

Watch the webinar

Download the presentation

For more information on sustainability, contact Amy Fredregill.

COVID-19 Testing & Vaccination Assistance

By Andi Moffatt, Vice President of Environmental Services, WSB

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread through the country, WSB was called on by the Minnesota State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) to assist in COVID-19 testing logistics. As project managers in the AEC industry, our team is used to working under pressure – and this task was no exception. We welcomed the chance to assist the state in testing Minnesotans and to do our part in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

A LARGE EFFORT THAT SPANNED ACROSS THE STATE.

The size and scale of this project was enormous. Representatives from the state, cities, counties, local public health organizations and staff at the vaccination and testing venues came together as a coalition to get this project off the ground and operational. To support these efforts, several WSB team members from across the company stepped in to assist on the emergency contract to set-up and manage the logistics of the state’s no barrier COVID-19 testing sites. We provided project management, IT, site mapping and drone photography, visual documentation and information gathering, and general logistics on behalf of the state.

GETTING MINNESOTANS VACCINATED.

As vaccines became available throughout the state, the SEOC asked WSB to manage the logistics associated with COVID-19 vaccine sites. We continue to work behind the scenes to help Minnesotans get vaccinated.

TACKLING CHALLENGES HEAD ON.

This project has been rewarding for many of us at WSB. It reinforces our commitment to supporting our communities and the challenges they face, no matter what they may be. Internally, we’ve also reminded ourselves that nothing is too big for us to tackle together and that we will work across departments, teams and offices to deliver for our clients.

“We are honored to have been able to play a role in such a dedicated, committed and passionate network across the state,” said Andi Moffatt, vice president of environmental services. “Public health is a priority, and we will continue to work with the state and our local communities to help deliver this critical support.”

United States Postal Remediation Efforts

In the wake of the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, the United States Postal Service (USPS) experienced significant damage to two post offices in south Minneapolis.

WSB’s Environmental Remediation and Structures team assisted USPS with their emergency response and environmental and structural needs. Our team worked to identify and analyze any potentially harmful materials that may have been released into the environment that could pose an immediate risk to emergency responders, the public or postal workers.

Riots and protests in the area brought many U.S. Marshalls, Secret Service agents and FBI investigators to the scene. Determining the structural and environmental safety of the buildings was paramount to USPS’s emergency response. The structures were deemed a total loss and the team identified many hazardous materials caused by the fire and destruction of the buildings. USPS is currently in the process of rebuilding one of their facilities and performing environmental clean-up at both sites. Our team will continue to partner with USPS on several other environmental clean-up projects throughout the Midwest.

The future of Utility GIS: Understanding the Utility Network

By Alex Johnson, GIS Solution Architect, WSB

Organizations have been using GIS to manage utility assets for years. Historically, GIS has been utilized as a system-of-record for mapping and asset management within organizations tasked with managing utilities, pipeline and telecommunications. It’s not only important to know the where and what of your utility assets, but also their condition and how they relate to each other.

GIS has evolved into a system of engagement that creates easy access to your organization’s data and the ability to integrate it with asset management systems through the web. This provides organizations systems for recording that encourages easy access to data and data sharing. As GIS continuously advances, so does its ability to manage your utility infrastructure. The release of ESRI’s Utility Network provides a new fundamental approach to utility management; a smarter, faster, and more accurate way model your system.

The Utility Network gives organizations a full platform to manage their system that is based on industries like water, electric and natural gas. ESRI has created data models that simplify the data structure and provide a foundational platform for companies to start with.

These data models will:

• Organize utility information into a cleaner and better structured database.
• Provide a solid foundation and allow for customization to better meet the needs of each organization.
• Give users a streamlined editing experience that extends beyond normal desktop applications and into mobile and web applications.

Quality data entry is key when editing an organization’s GIS database. The Utility Network focuses on data quality through enforcement of industry standard rules and allows organizations to set requirements for how data is entered and edited. These requirements are fully customizable to meet the needs of each individual client and give more control over data ensuring that quality information is being entered.

In addition to new data models, the Utility Network offers new features and functionality. Users can now view and interact with data in ways that resembles reality including new data concepts such as assemblies, containers, and associations. In earlier systems, GIS assets had to be snapped on top of each other to enforce connectivity. Now, assets can be spread apart and shown in a more logical and easier-to-view way while maintaining connectivity. These new formats allow building a GIS system that is more flexible, connected, and easier to understand.

Performing analysis of utility systems is nothing new to organizations, but with the Utility Network it has been greatly expanded. New tracing tools allow for more specific analysis; users can experience greater understanding of how their system works and improve decision making. These tools were built for the ArcGIS Pro environment, users can expect quicker responsiveness and greater data processing capabilities.

Preparedness is an important step to getting ready to migrate to the Utility Network.

• It’s about more than simply preparing the data but ensuring the appropriate system architecture in place to allow for a smooth transition.
• Confirm the existing GIS systems will accept these new data formats.
• Become familiar with ArcGIS Pro, this new system was built specifically for it.

Since this is ESRI’s model for the next 15+ years it is important to start preparing now, proceeding with care will help ensure a successful transition. Navigating to the new Utility Network does not have to be a daunting process. Experts at WSB help by creating road maps to facilitate the smoothest possible transition into the future of utility management.

Are you ready for Colorado’s new Digital As-Constructed Requirements?

By Nate Osterberg, Pipeline Inspector, WSB

Effective January 14, 2021, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will mandate that all new permitted utility installations meet Digital As-Constructed Requirements (DAC) in accordance with the Utility Accommodation Code Rule 3.3.4.6.2.  New requirements under State Highway Accommodation Code, 2 CCR 601-18, Rule 3.3.4.6.2 Digital As-Constructed Requirements, Plan and Profile 3.3.4.3 mandate uniformity in utility mapping, as-builts and plan-and-profile submissions. Utility permits will begin stipulating this requirement soon.  Additionally, there are new Plan and Profile requirements for all Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) operations within CDOT’s Right of Way.

But what does this mean?

Essentially, this means that anyone working within CDOT’s Right of Way must perform a digital utility locate survey for any underground utilities – commonly known as Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE).  The survey must be submitted using their chosen software. 

What is SUE?

SUE is an engineering practice used to obtain reliable underground utility information. Accurate and successful SUE practices benefit contractors, transportation departments and utility companies by limited the need for unnecessary utility relocations, avoiding unexpected conflicts and enhancing safety.

How do I do this digitally?

You combine the right tools with the right expertise. The digital world of 3D modeling can be intimidating, but a digital approach is actually more accurate, efficient and safe. Using mobile mapping software, utilities can be captured, recorded and displayed precisely accurately and seamlessly. 

Learn more about our complete Pipeline services or Utility Mapping and how to prepare for upcoming requirements.

Using Advanced Traffic Simulation Technology for Construction Staging and Maintenance of Traffic

By Do Nam, Sr. Traffic Operations Engineer, WSB

Construction operations on roadways disrupt normal traffic flow and generate undesirable delay. As traffic continues to increase throughout many metro areas, the Federal Highway Administration has been encouraging DOTs to be more proactive in their maintenance of traffic during construction. 

Good construction staging provides safe and efficient traffic operations throughout a project to minimize impacts on the community during construction. WSB has begun development of traffic models that simulate the flow of traffic under different staging scenarios. These traffic simulation models consider all available routes, how construction will impact these routes and how much additional time this will add for commuters. These models are being used to determine if there are improvements that need to be made on any surrounding routes to allow for better operations throughout construction.

This new approach is more proactive than past construction staging methods and is based upon data. By modeling actual construction conditions, we’re able to pinpoint where potential challenges may occur during construction and how to avoid them. Below is a list of potential benefits of construction staging and maintenance of traffic modeling using traffic simulation.

The benefits of advanced traffic simulation for construction staging and maintenance of traffic

1. By understanding what the impacts to the community are, we can be more proactive in mitigating them.
2. If we better understand what routes traffic will use, we can ensure that traffic controls are set up to accommodate additional traffic volumes.
3. Limit changes can be evaluated.
4. Informs decisions on critical maintenance items.
5. Provides a public engagement tool for cities and residents.

Through advanced traffic simulation technology, we’ve been able to enhance construction staging plans resulting in better projects.

US Fish and Wildlife Service decide listing monarch butterfly is “warranted but precluded”

By Roxy Robertson, Environmental Scientist, WSB

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently announced their decision to list the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species act is “warranted but precluded”. The USFWS will not issue a proposed rule to list the monarch officially until 2024 due to insufficient funding and personnel. The listing will be evaluated annually to determine its eligibility and listing decision may be expedited under a new administration.

What does the USFWS decision mean?

• The “warranted but precluded” decision means that the USFWS has determined the monarch butterfly meets the definition of a threatened or endangered species, but the agency lacks the resources to take further action to list the species at this time.
• Since monarch butterflies still face threats and decline, there is a strong likelihood that monarch conservationists will challenge and litigate the decision.
• If litigation occurs, the USFWS could be ordered to prioritize the listing prior to 2024. This could result in a listing of the species within a short timeframe. If this occurs, partners enrolled in the Candidate Conservation Agreement for Monarch Butterfly on Energy and Transportation Lands (CCAA) are protected against regulatory actions that may occur following the listing decision.

Why is the CCAA important?

• By enrolling in the CCAA, partners will be protected against any regulatory actions that may result from future listing. Enrollment avoids risks to planned projects that may impact monarchs and their habitat by giving assurance that no additional regulatory requirements will be imposed by the USFWS beyond the terms of the CCAA agreement.
• The conservation efforts of enrolled partners will help to save the monarch species. This decision means that monarch butterflies are in trouble and unless the species experiences dramatic improvements in the next few years, a future listing of this species is certain.
• Enrollment in the CCAA demonstrates the partner’s commitment to conservation of this species.

Learn more about the Candidate Conservation Agreement and how the listing decision will impact right of way on energy and transportation lands. 

Simplifying MS4 compliance through technology

By Jake Newhall, Project Manager, WSB

Minnesota’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4s) are currently in the process of applying for coverage under the revised MS4 General Permit. The updated MS4 General Permit creates changes in the ways that MS4 permittees will operate, starting with modifications that address procedural and programmatic changes needed to comply with updated rules. 

One of the main changes is new performance-based responses to Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Total Phosphorus (TP); including a TMDL assessment to identify and prioritize activities to achieve reductions. WSB’s SWAMP system helps to address these new regulations by streamlining TMDL compliance through tracking and documenting improvements that have been completed to date or since the baseline of TMDL development. The SWAMP system also helps target subwatersheds that are underperforming or lacking the necessary treatment to meet water quality goals. SWAMP improves efficiency by saving time on planning and modeling when developing an efficient plan to address TMDL requirements.

Aside from improving compliance with new MS4 TMDL requirements, SWAMP continues to help address existing MS4 requirements.

• Estimate TP and TSS reduction from existing ponds and BMPs
• Prioritize inspection and maintenance activities related to ponds and BMPs
  • Ensure standard operating procedures are in place and stormwater management features continue to function as designed
• Inspection and maintenance activities are automatically updated and reflect real-time information
• Tracks and stores completed activity records for on-demand reporting

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