By Caroline Ask, Solid Waste Division Manager
National Public Works Week is celebrated each May to recognize the thousands of public works professionals who plan, build, and operate the nation’s infrastructure and programs to provide the highest quality of life for their communities.
Over 120 City of College Station public works professionals maintain our roadways, ensure our storm systems flow smoothly, provide daily solid waste collections, map infrastructure, and so much more. In addition to many daily tasks and duties, our public works team manages specialty areas such as traffic engineering analysis, city vehicles and equipment, environmental compliance programs, and the popular Adopt-A-Street volunteer program.
Our team also collaborates with the library system on the Big Vehicles Event, attends community helpers’ day at area schools, and responds to disasters and other crises when the community needs assistance.
A summary of our work in a typical year embodies the theme of this year’s National Public Works Week: “Advancing Quality of Life for All.”
- Manage over 103,000 assets with geographic information systems (GIS).
- Maintain more than 360 centerline miles of asphalt and concrete roadways.
- Maintain about 236 miles of sidewalks.
- Complete about 46 major and 473 minor street maintenance projects.
- Sweep 9,072 linear miles of roadway.
- Maintain 255 miles of drainage ways, including 110 miles of storm sewer pipes, 1,897 junction boxes, and 6,837 storm inlets.
- Maintain 124 public landscape areas and more than 2,500 trees.
- Complete thousands of work orders to service over 800 city vehicles and equipment worth $56.5 million.
- Collect over 98,971 tons of municipal solid waste, servicing 41,871 accounts with 33 collection vehicles.
- Divert 26,297 tons of materials for recycling, including 2,985 tons of brush for mulch.
- Manage 1,414 dumpsters, 972 automated containers, and 28,454 residential cans.
- Collect 5,290 lbs. of litter along 265 linear miles through the Adopt-A-Street program’s volunteer organizations.
- Complete 250 traffic project reviews.
- Maintain an exit flow of under 2½ hours from Kyle Field after Aggie football games.
- Maintain 94 traffic signals and 75 school zone flashers.
- Maintain over 16,000 roadway signs and more than 160 miles of traffic lines and pavement markings.
No wonder our Public Works Department has been nationally accredited since 2012 for adhering to the best practices and standards of the American Public Works Association and its 32,000 member agencies.
Our team works diligently every day to ensure our community is a better, safer, and more enjoyable place to call home.
Happy 64th National Public Works Week!
About the Blogger
Solid Waste Division Manager Caroline Ask is in her seventh year with the city. She previously served as an engineering program specialist and environmental inspector and held environmental health positions at Texas A&M and Houston’s Texas Children’s Hospital. She earned a bachelor’s degree in bioenvironmental sciences from A&M in 2012.
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