Public Works 2018 Year-End Report progress in motion • lean culture • residents first • dedicated to safety
Public works Department - City of Frisco
Public Works 2018 Year-End Report what's inside this issue
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Message from the Director
transportation
Department Overview
customer service
New Infrastructure
going lean
maintenance strategies
continuous improvement
STRATEGIC GOALS
Meet Demand For New Infrastructure
maintenance for public infrastructure
a safe & efficient transportation system
strengthen customer service & communication
As laid out in the 2018 Strategic Plan, the Public Works Department aligned itself towards the realization of five overarching goals. In this report, we hope to demonstrate significant and ongoing progress towards the achievement of those goals.
a culture of continuous improvement
GUIDING PRINCIPLES vision
Deliver the highest quality infrastructure with the highest level of service to all Frisco residents.
mission
Through good stewardship of resources, Public Works pursues best management practices in all divisions in a constant effort to maintain and promote the health, safety, and welfare of the City of Frisco.
CORE Values Integrity: Honesty, trustworthiness, ethical behavior, and always doing the right thing in the right way. Outstanding Customer Service: Delivering the highest quality services to our residents & visitors by understanding their needs and consistently treating everyone fairly and responsively. Fiscal Responsibility: Demonstrating good financial stewardship of those resources entrusted to us by the Public. Operational Excellence: Efficient, effective, and innovative use of our resources, demonstrated through meaningful & measurable results. Our Employees: Supporting, developing, and rewarding the contributions, diversity, and talents of all employees.
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MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR I am pleased to present the 2018 End of Year Report on behalf of the Department of Public Works. The report highlights work activity for the period of January 2018 through December of 2018. Over the past year, we continued to meet the demand for new roadways, water distribution, and wastewater collection systems, developed a multi-year plan for street maintenance that resulted in increased funding for maintenance and reconstruction, converted numerous paper processes to electronic form, increased the positive outcomes of our education programs in water resources and environmental services, and had 20% of our workforce become active in the City’s LEAN initiative. Our employees are responsible for the operation and maintenance of infrastructure and the provision of services that are essential to the health and safety of the City’s 180,000 residents. Thank you for taking a few minutes to read through this document. It is our hope that this report provides some insight into the hard work of our team this past year. -Paul Knippel, P.E.
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WHO WE ARE
Administration Director and Deputy Director, two Office Managers, and support staff in the areas of business process, administration, and customer service. Paul Knippel, Director Bob Kopp, Deputy Director
Cip & Development Engineering
Planning, design, and construction of city funded infrastructure including roadways, water distribution, and wastewater collection; plan review and field inspection of infrastructure built by private development that is accepted by the city for ownership and maintenance. Jason Brodigan, Assistant Director
Environmental services Management of contracted residential and commercial trash collection and recycling programs, operation of environmental service center, education and outreach. Jeremy Starritt, Manager
Streets, traffic, & ROW Maintenance of streets, alleys, and sidewalks; maintenance of traffic signs, pavement markings, signal equipment, and roadway lighting; right-of way management. Shelley Lang, Assistant Director
stormwater utility Compliance with stormwater discharge permit, maintenance of storm drainage system. Perry Harts, Manager
water utility operations
Maintenance and operation of water distribution system including water mains, pumping and storage facilities, valves and hydrants, water quality sampling, and meters; maintenance and operation of wastewater collection systems, including gravity collection mains, manholes, wastewater lift stations and force mains; and the reuse water distribution system. Kevin Grant, Assistant Director
Transportation engineering
Traffic management and transportation planning, traffic signal construction and operations, neighborhood and school zone safety, special events, mobility services including demand response contract. Brian Moen, Assistant Director
water resources Water efficiency education, drought management, community outreach, irrigation system plan review and inspection, irrigation system check-up program. Joyce Warren, Manager
Public Works had 257 Full Time positions in FY 2018
NEW INFRASTRUCTURE
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keeping frisco on a solid foundation
preparing for the future
From design to reality
Engineering staff assisted the Development Services Department with completion of two significant planning documents.
After 18 months of construction, 4th Army transformed from a twolane asphalt road with a low water crossing into a concrete road with a bridge, bike lanes, and two roundabouts. As a result, the communities in this area will enjoy better traffic flow and access to the B.F. Phillips and Southwest Community Parks.
The Downtown Master Plan outlines the vision for downtown’s continuing development. Last updated in 1998, this year-long inter-departmental collaborative revision takes into account resident and business owner desires for a more pedestrian friendly environment while not limiting traffic flow. Visit CityOfFriscoTx on YouTube and look for Progress in Motion – Downtown Master Plan. Engineering also assisted with the completion of an update to Frisco’s Neighborhood Design Standards. The three-year process involved the collaboration of four different departments and numerous divisions. The end result will ensure that new developments support health, safety, and welfare of residents.
The Stonebrook Water Tower, located east of FM 423, went into service in June, increasing water pressure and storage capacity to support continued growth in the City of Frisco.
O uts ta ndi ng g reen s p a ce a w a rd State of Texas Association for Recycling
L E A N The Stewart Creek Wastewater Interceptor Project is upgrading the sewer line serving Frisco Square and the surrounding City Center, allowing for further development of those areas. The project also allowed the City to take the outdated and inefficient Cottonwood Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant offline.
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MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES maintenance for Public Infrastructure
developing systematic, data driven, multi-year maintenance & capital replacement plans Operational Excellence The City of Frisco water system testing for FY 2018, in compliance with both Federal and State requirements, resulted in no actionable trigger points and continues its long term superior water system rating.
CORE Recognition Thomas Stern & Kevin Nethercutt Redesigned the quality control process to be an automated cyclical process within CityWorks. The new process ensures cross-department transparency & accuracy and generates the monthly water-loss report.
L E A N The Sewers division redistributed its workforce in order to absorb ROW mainline inspections, demonstrating fiscal responsibility and providing better customer service. L E A N The Meters division converted a largely paper-based, radio dispatched work order system to a digital work and asset management system in CityWorks. This increases response time, promotes fiscal responsibility, and promotes operational excellence. There is a new GIS Analyst position within the IT Department that is dedicated to serving the Public Works Department. The position will help to manage and maintain the City’s infrastructure.
CORE recognition Billy Straw Provided value added service to a resident to resolve their plumbing issue even though it was not technically the City's responsibility, demonstrating outstanding customer service.
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Asset Management L E A N Based on data collected through a methodical assessment of Frisco streets, Public Works has created a maintenance plan based in CityWorks wherein all streets are assigned a grade based on various weighted factors. CityWorks geocodes each road segment and color codes the state of repair and can provide that information both in a map format and an excel spreadsheet. The use of CityWorks for this asset management has resulted in more accurate cost/risk analysis for budget purposes and has streamlined crew assignments making the City more responsive to community inquires and needs. L E A N Public Works and GIS are creating a program to accurately map each street sign within the City and measure the condition of the sign. This new asset management process will allow the City to be proactive in the maintenance of signs.
CORE recognition Carlos Quiroz Consistently goes above and beyond to keep the city moving during major events, listening to resident concerns, and finding innovative solutions to problems.
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TRANSPORTATION keeping frisco moving safely & efficiently
Building with purpose
CORE recognition Christopher Keahey, Tracy Nichols, Tracy Smith, Robert Caskey, Matt Phillips, and Kenny Castleberry. Not Shown: Curtis Jarecki, Tin Nguyen, Larry Frasure.
Representing cooperation between several divisions within Public Works, this team worked together to ensure the opening of the intersection at Legacy & Main for the start of school.
On April 17, 2018, City Council adopted a Transportation Vision Statement and Strategic Plan with the goal of providing guiding principles as well as a framework for reporting progress to Council. The main points of the plan include: Construction, Intersections, Connectivity, Partnerships, and Innovation.
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connected cities The foundation for moving forward with the Connected Cities initiative is a good traffic communication system. Our goal with Connected Cities is to increase the safety and mobility of residents and visitors to our city. With 97% of all traffic fatalities due to human error, we firmly believe the safe exploration of new technologies is essential to reaching this goal. As part of ongoing maintenance related to the Connected Cities initiative, Traffic Engineering initiated the first traffic communications hardware update since 2007. Part of ongoing maintenance involved upgrading the wireless communication system between traffic signals. The old equipment had reached the end of its useful life and was no longer supported by the vendor. Equipment needed to be changed out at every intersection. The City is currently halfway through this update. Another part of ensuring the Connected Cities initiative is to create system redundancy for better resiliency during emergencies. Traffic Engineering is installing a dedicated fiber optic cable connecting the EOC to Police Headquarters via Main and the Dallas Parkway. This will allow for all traffic signals along this route to function, despite the vertical development around Frisco Square (which can block traditional traffic signal communication), and high cellular usage during large events (which can slow down the network). This line also provides for two points of system recover for both PD and Fire in the event of an emergency and adds additional firewall security. The project is expected to reach completion in time for the 2018 Frisco Bowl. The Frisco Transportation Management Association (TMA) is a public/private partnership whose goal is to explore and help foster innovative transportation technology solutions as well as service providers (micro transit) using the area inclusive of The Star, Hall Park, and Frisco Station as a testing ground. During 2018, Frisco TMA launched a project with Drive.ai, to provide on-demand transportation around Hall Park and the Star using autonomous vehicles. To see the program in action, visit CityOfFriscoTx on YouTube and look for Progress in Motion – Drive.ai offers Rides to the Public.
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L E A N Frisco’s Demand Response Transportation (DRT) program expanded this year with the growth of taxi service now comprising 30% of the total transportation. The cost effectiveness of the taxis, about half that of a trip in the shuttles, has allowed expanded service area and more rides without increasing the DCTA budget. New this fall is the addition of a Transportation Network Company (TNC) as an option. Qualified users can now use Lyft to hail a ride in real-time at a reduced cost to the user. While the City will subsidize a portion of the cost, it is expected each Lyft ride will incur half the cost of a taxi ride and less than one quarter the cost of a shuttle ride.
Traffic crews completed 15 restriping projects over 16 miles within the City. This included a record seven new schools which required a high degree of coordination between Traffic Engineering, Signs & Markings, and Signals.
Public works installed seven new traffic signals bringing the total number of maintained traffic signals to 138
CORE recognition Carlos Rodriguez Went above and beyond during Freedom Fest when he helped handicapped attendees navigate heavy traffic and barriers.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
The best service through better communication L E A N Meters restructured its work crews, creating a second shift, to better respond to off-duty needs and reduce overtime. The second shift works Tuesday - Saturday, handles service requests to turn on/off residential water meters, meter leaks, and responds to other functional emergency calls such as sign know downs and debris clean up, among others. L E A N The Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition system (SCADA) allows licensed operators to monitor and adjust all waterrelated systems in the City. Currently the system is monitored on a 24/5 basis, but with the approval of another operator for FY2019, and reclassification of another position, Public Works will offer 24/7 coverage of the system. This also allows Public Works to respond to after-hours calls, without utilizing non-emergency Police Dispatch services.
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L a rg e Uti l i ti es i ndi rect co ns erv a ti o n a w a rd
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I rri g a ti o n S ta ti o n W O rks h o p Texas Chapter American Water Works Association
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L E A N As part of the workflow transition of the Meters division to CityWorks, a digital work and asset management platform, the data generated is now integrated with Utility Billing, resulting in a better transfer of data between divisions and eliminating the need for scanning handwritten notes or files for accurate tracking of account information.
ex cep ti o nal P erfo rmance Sustai nabi l i ty aw ard
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w ater co nserv ati o n American Public Works association
L E A N The Public Works’ Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) were operating with a paper/labor intensive process for managing the billing of Fire Hydrant Meters. Each month, the CSRs spent roughly 16 hours of overtime sorting through the meter reads, handwriting the information into logbooks, imaging the logbooks, and sending them to Utility Billing for processing. Now, contractors submit their meter reads via e-mail, the CSRs enter the readings into CityWorks, and generates a report that is sent directly to Utility Billing for processing. The new paperless process eliminates the need for overtime and saves processing time for Utility Billing.
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CORE recognition Craig LaFratte After noticing a blind resident attempting to cross a busy intersection, Craig offered his assistance allowing the resident to cross and preventing any accidents from occurring.
POSITIVE COMMUNITY IMPACT The RoughRiders and Environmental Services partnership began in 2016 when they joined the Adopt-a-Street program. In 2018, the Rough Riders implemented a recycling pilot program at Dr. Pepper Ballpark in partnership with the City and Teens4Green volunteers. A total of 41 cubic yards (roughly 2/3 of a full semi-truck) of material was diverted from the landfill with the help of 482 volunteer hours. Environmental Services have identified 121 “hotspot” streets for adoption and are up to a record 82 Adopt-A-Street teams. 2018 marked the largest turn out for Chunk-Your-Junk event in the history of the program with 877 participants in one day! The Household Hazardous Waste program experienced record use in June with 1,016 participants reusing household cleaning products and keeping them out of the landfill.
CORE recognition Casey Lawson & Chris Keahey Worked to manually change traffic signals during an FC Dallas home game when a vendor issue would have otherwise meant huge traffic jams.
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REACHING FARTHER Water Resources began sending out Weekly Watering Recommendations via text message in September of 2018 and now have 370 subscribers. Beginning in July, Frisco's own licensed irrigators began Free Sprinkler System Check-ups for Commercial Properties. Since that time, 26 properties have taken advantage of the program. This is an expansion on the residential Free Sprinkler System Check-up Program begun in 2005. As of 11/26/2018, Irrigation completed a record breaking 5,640 Free Sprinkler System Check-ups and Certificate of Occupancy inspections in 2018 for over 678 million gallons of water saved as a result of this award winning program. 2018 saw a resurgence in the WaterWise Community Captain Program with volunteers donating almost 80 hours to help raise water conservation awareness in Frisco by attending HOA meetings, distributing flyers, and helping out at events.
T h e W eekl y W a terw i s e new s l etter ex p eri enced 13% g ro w th f o r a reco rd 28 ,0 8 0 s ub s cri b ers
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The water reuse program at the Star earned three prestigious awards highlighting the dedication of the City of Frisco and the Dallas Cowboys to water conservation and environmentally friendly solutions.
B o b Derri ng to n w a ter Reus e a w a rd Texas Chapter American Water Works Association
di rect co ns erv a ti o n L a rg e Uti l i ti es a w a rd
J o h n T ei p l e A w a rd f o r Env i ro nmenta l Ex cel l ence
Texas Chapter American Water Works Association
Texas Chapter American Public Works Association
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GOING LEAN developing a culture of continuous improvement
When the City of Frisco embraced the LEAN culture, Public Works jumped on board and now have a 24% participation rate, with 17% having achieved Bronze Level Certification. You'll notice that many of the items in this report are flagged as LEAN. Aguilar, Raul Aucoin, Sean Berlien, Maria Brodigan, Jason Caskey, Robert Chacon, David Diaz, Martha Downing, Ashley DuBois, Matthew Dworshak, Rick Faulkner, Natalia Fawehinmi, Toyin Feldberg, Jill Foster, Linda Franke, Dan Grant, Kevin Grimm, Jason Hall, Dicky Hartle, Art Harts, Perry
Janney, Will Jones, Lance Knippel, Paul Kopp, Bob Lange, Shelley Marie, Julianah Martinez, Gloria Mattana, Rafael Nethercutt, Kevin Nguyen, Tin Phillips, Matt Schwarz, Angella Smith, Kerin Soullas, Desirae Thompson, Johnny Tillison, Tiffany Torres, Eduardo Warren, Joyce Witt, Jeff Woodard, Calvin
LEAN
a cultural mindset that encourages employees to improve processes, eliminate waste, and improve value
BETTER SMARTER FASTER
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developing a culture of continuous improvement
L E A N Traffic Engineering & Operations, along with Capital Project Engineering, adopted a new workload management tool called Visual Projects Boards. Each division holds brief weekly meetings that cover all of the projects underway in their respective areas. At these meetings, each team member can see the exact position of every project, any related issues (the lead on resolving those issues), and the priorities for the group members for that week. The system allows for swift prioritization, consistent feedback, clarity of direction, and facilitates collaboration.
accreditation
on track at 50% complete As part of the accreditation process, Public Works began a monthly Safety newsletter. Each division receives their own version with their vehicle & security check stats and an injury/accident/property damage report. The newsletter also presents ideas for safety topics, which is intended for presentation at monthly divisional safety meetings. Water Resources coordinated a workshop on Severe Weather for all City employees as part of disaster relief training for the accreditation process. The Public Works Department conducted a Winter Weather Tabletop Exercise in December. This two-hour discussion-based exercise’s objectives were to enhance the team’s ability to respond and recover from weather related threats and damage, process and analyze crisis event information, and conduct an exercise that effectively addresses the objectives. The group identified a number of operational gaps in which to improve.
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Water Utilities maintains an aggressive professional development/licensure training program. In addition to job required licenses, all employees are afforded the opportunity to take the basic water and wastewater operations classes to enhance their skill set and knowledge.
Sustained Excellence water utility partner of the year epa watersense award L E A N After reviewing its business processes, the ROW division saw room for improvement in the ROW permitting process. Although contractors had been able to access eTRAKit for many parts of the permitting process since 2017, the actual application process was still paper-based and took place in person at the Public Works facility and often resulted in application rejection and project delays. The ROW permit application is now available online as a fillable .pdf file. Contractors complete the form and submit it directly to ROW through eTRAKit - streamlining the process, allowing for faster application processing, and better customer service.
L E A N In FY2018, Public Works revamped the paper-based Right-of-Way (ROW) Line Locate process. As of September 2018, Public Works no longer accepts paper applications for this process. Instead, applicants fill out an online application through the City’s website (FriscoTexas.Gov/LineLocateRequest) or through the myFRISCO app. The new system allows two inspectors to average 83 line locates per week with a twobusiness-day turn-around. Since the paperless process went live in September, over 2,000 line locates have been processed.
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L E A N The City of Frisco contracted with Backflow Solutions, Inc. to take over, Backflow Tester Registration, customer service, and State required filing for the Backflow division. This allows City of Frisco Backflow Inspectors to spend more time in the field and improve customer service without increasing expenses for the City.
Public Works participated in a trash audit conducted by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) to identify what residents of the metroplex discard. This analysis helps us to understand the habits of our residents, thereby adjusting our messaging to increase effective results.
Environmental Services was processing an average of 12,000 lbs. of batteries per year, but in 2018 battery recycling spiked to 22,000 lbs. The increase in usage prompted the City of Frisco to enter into a “bulking” contract that decreases processing time and increasing savings for Frisco residents.
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Excellence in Material Recovery Household Hazardous Waste center & Program North Texas Recycling Association
L E A N One of the most common items dropped off at the Hazardous Household Waste (HHW) center is paint which has a very high cost of disposal. In 2017, Frisco received over 200,000 lbs. of paint. The City of Frisco partnered with Visions Paint, of Fort Worth to reduce costs through a process of remanufacturing paint and reducing disposal costs for the City and space in the landfill.
L E A N Over 280,000 lbs. of household chemicals were dropped off at the Hazardous Household Waste (HHW) center in 2017 including paint. Of the items, 85.6% were recycled, 6% were disposed at a hazardous waste landfill, while only 6.5% of items were reused. In an effort to increase rates of diversion, increase rates of participation, and decrease costs, Environmental Services partnered with Smarter Sorting to help divert more materials into reuse and away from recycling and the landfill. Smarter Sorting use product barcode to identify and select items that are desired second-hand for industrial use. The City receives a 10% cost reduction with Smarter Sorting as opposed to safe disposal/recycling. Smarter Sorting also accurately tracks product management at the Reuse center at no additional cost. This partnership helps divert waste and does so at a cost savings to the city.
SERVICE
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Dedicated to the city of frisco
30 years
25 years
20 years
SANCHEZ-MOYA, GUSTAVO
CARROLL, DANNY
WITT, JEFFREY
15 years
10 years
10 years
SMITH, BRANDON STEELE, MICHAEL RYAN, CORY DELEON, ALBERT VASQUEZ, HONORIO
ARGUELLO, TANIA FITTS, JOEL NGUYEN, TIN BOX, BRADLEY BOWDEN, JASON
LANG, SHELLEY RODRIGUEZ, WENDY HALL, DICKY MARTINEZ, GLORIA POE, KYLE
05 years
05 years
05 years
BISHOP, JASON CARAVEO, RENE PHILLIPS, MATTHEW RAINES, DAVID RAMIREZ, JUAN CHANCELLOR, TIMOTHY
GRIMM, JASON TARWATER, RANDY NETHERCUTT, KEVIN STERN, THOMAS HERRERA, ALEJANDRO BERLIEN, MARIA FAULKNER, NATALIA
RODRIGUEZ, CARLOS JARECKI, CURTIS AGUILAR, LEONARDO CASSELL, CODY HERRERA, JOSE LAFRATTE, CRAIG
Public Works Department Frisco, Texas - 2018