Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
The health and sustainability of Municipal, State/Provincial and Federal Infrastructures around the world are key to the ongoing success and prosperity of our nations and societies. As we face the ongoing challenges of growth and managing aging infrastructures, the need for wise, conscientious and practical solutions for managing spending and budgets for new construction, rehabilitation and maintenance has never been more important. This paper takes the experiences of the coauthors, one a seasoned Municipal Engineer and the other a seasoned veteran Sr. Principal Consultant, to provide a balanced and realistic approach to identifying the underlying issues of waste and inefficiencies plaguing governments while offering real world practical solutions. Waste occurs mostly due to inexperienced decisions or managing parties not realizing what they do not know or fully understand. This is due to unrealistic workloads, municipal engineer burnout, turnover, and a knowledge gap caused by retirement of senior staff. This paper will provide a case study showing how proper planning and execution of key factors including construction design, quality assurance and having a robust preventive maintenance program can and will save governments millions of dollars by substantially extending asset life cycles.
