Every community, no matter its size and its economic well-being, is faced with the questions of, “How do you assign priorities to competing public infrastructure projects?” “How do you placate different public interest groups?” and “How do you maximize limited sources and amounts of funding?”
Staff at Nelson Engineering have, for years, advised communities how to answer these questions related to the planning of public infrastructure—how they might address them in systematic ways that incorporate public involvement, take advantage of alternative funding methods, and utilize new technologies to best advantage
As an example, for the Town of Jackson, Wyoming, current staff of Nelson Engineering were instrumental in the creation of an award-winning Capital Improvement Program, an award-winning Pavement Management Program, and a Sanitary Sewer Mains Rehabilitation Program so effective at rehabilitating the Town’s collection network (specifically reducing infiltration) that the Town’s wastewater treatment plant did not experience any increase in peak flows over a ten year period, even though the Town’s population doubled over the same time period. These programs allowed the Town to save money on an annually-recurring basis in its infrastructure maintenance efforts, to make capital improvement project selection a more rational and less politically-charged endeavor, and to maximize the resources, opportunities, and funding available to it.
Sample Project Evaluation
Criteria
- Regulatory Mandate
- Environmental Mandate
- Public Safety Imperative
- Estimated Cost
- Project Funding
- Committed Source
- Potential Source
- Current Shortfall
- Project Schedule
- Area/Population Served
- Coordination Required
- Service-providing Entities
- Funding Agencies
- Adjacent Property Owners
- Construction Sequencing
- Other
- Easements/ROW Secured
- Expressed Community Desire
