Features

Planning for Vital Infrastructure Needs in Schertz

By: Sarah Gonzalez

If you have driven around Schertz lately, you will likely have noticed a lot of construction activity. Many of these projects are ones the City directly oversees, like road repairs, silt removal in drainage channels, and facilities, to name a few. It’s these types of projects that fall into a broad category known as Capital Improvement Projects, or CIPs, and the City’s Public Works Department is tasked with planning which infrastructure projects are done and when.

By definition, a CIP is any project that maintains or expands the City’s facilities or infrastructure. Projects may include work on drainage ways, water and wastewater facilities, roadways, parks, or City buildings. In a nutshell, projects can include traditional “horizontal” infrastructure projects such as streets and sidewalks or water and wastewater. They can also be “vertical” infrastructure projects, like the building of a new fire station or an elevated water tank. Because of the variety of projects that are classified as being a CIP, the timeframes and budgets associated with those projects can be equally varied – although CIP projects generally have a total cost greater than $50,000. “As CIP projects typically have a large price tag associated with them, funding for the projects varies depending on the project type and available City resources,” Public Works Director Suzanne Williams remarked. “Some projects have to be bonded, like soon-to-be Fire Station 4, but when the opportunity comes up to utilize other resources like impact fees or partnerships with other agencies to fund these large ticket projects, we jump on the chance to do so.”

Impact fees, which are charging new development for their impact on existing infrastructure, is how the City’s portion of Ripps-Kreusler Road was funded. “The expansion of RippsKreusler Road resulted in new infrastructure – it expanded the capacity of the road from two to four lanes – so impact fees could be used for the project,” Williams explained.

When you think of partnership opportunities or alternative funding sources and how they can affect projects, “Eckhardt Road and Tri-County Parkway are good projects to highlight,” stated Williams, “for instance, although Eckhardt Road was further down our CIP list; when Guadalupe County approached

us about a solution to fixing the road, the project rose to the top of the list so we could take advantage of the opportunity from the County. They provided the labor and equipment, and we provided the materials – it worked very well, and we felt like we were able to get a win-win for our agencies as we both share common stakeholders, which are our residents.”

Another way CIP priorities are accelerated is when the projects align with the mission and allowable use of funds of partner entities. In 2021, the Schertz Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) approved over $5.2M for the re-construction of Tri-County Parkway and the upsizing of underlying wastewater facilities. Tri-County Parkway is a critical access point for thousands of employees and provides commercial access to IH-35 and FM 3009. The SEDC had conducted interviews with industrial park employers and potential employers that considered, but did not select, Schertz and found that in order to remain competitive in securing new jobs and investment, the condition of Tri-County Parkway needed to be addressed. Schertz EDC Director, Adrian Perez, commented, “Growing our community’s industrial tax base supports the revenue our city needs to keep pace with our growth while keeping our taxes low. Development along the IH35 Corridor and surrounding areas is happening at such a rapid pace. Newer and shinier industrial parks are popping up every day. It is more important than ever that the SEDC continue to make investments to secure greater diversification of our industrial tax base.”

In addition to varying resources regarding cost, the length it can take to complete a CIP greatly fluctuates. While some projects can be designed and constructed within the same fiscal year (Civic Center HVAC replacement, for example), other projects can take years of work to complete from start to finish.

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It is more important than ever that the SEDC continue to make investments to secure greater diversification of our industrial tax base.

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“The Woman Hollering Creek Wastewater Line is the perfect example of a complex project, as there are a lot of behindthe-scenes steps that needed to take place to even get to the construction phase,” commented Scott McClelland, Assistant Public Works Director. “The City did an initial route study back in 2013, to determine where the flow needed to go. After that, it went through the project design phase and moved into easement/property acquisition. Next steps will be going through the bidding process and then once a contract is awarded by Council, it can go to construction.”

As of now, this project is expected to be completed in Spring 2023. When completed, the Woman Hollering Creek Wastewater Line will provide sewer to parts of southern Schertz that do not currently have sewer service. “This particular line is important because as rapid growth continues to occur in our area, the City has the responsibility to construct the infrastructure to support it and this project does so,” stated McClelland.

So how do projects make it onto the CIP list? Like cost and time, it can vary. Some projects result from growth and the master planning done by the City, such as the Woman Hollering Creek Wastewater Line. Others are maintenance driven, like replacement of the waterlines in Aviation Heights. The CIP list looks forward 5-10 years and even then, staff knows there must be some flexibility. “We think of the City’s CIP plan as a living, breathing document,” stated Williams, “we know that conditions change – such as partnership opportunities or new funding sources – and as such, the plan must be reviewed continually to ensure the right projects are set into motion at the right time.” Interested in finding out more about CIPs? The City’s Engineering Department has created a webpage that features interactive story maps that provide project location and details. This site can be found in the Business & Development tab located on the City’s website, Schertz.com. Additionally, City staff provides City Council with a monthly informational item on the major projects in progress or in the planning process. This document is located in the Agendas & Minutes section on Schertz.com.

A Day in the Life of the Streets Division

By: Madison Porras

Every day Schertz residents travel through our city to get where they need to go. Whether you’re enjoying a leisurely morning walk or commuting home from work – you're benefitting from the hard work of the Schertz Public Works Streets Division. For them, the main goal is to maintain the roads so they are safe and usable for our residents.

When you think of tasks our Streets Division does, you likely think of larger road projects that happen throughout Schertz. “It is rewarding to start a big project with a great group of street employees, training them with heavy machinery and finishing the job in a timely manner,” says Street Crew Supervisor Demetrio Martinez.

This year, the Streets Division has wrapped up several projects including repairs and an asphalt overlay on Old Wiederstein Rd. as well as the asphalt overlay and striping of Boenig Rd. In addition to these larger road projects, our Streets Division handles numerous smaller tasks on a day-to-day basis to keep our city moving.

One of the most important tasks our Streets Department performs is road maintenance. In this pursuit, the city’s street sweepers are vital. Street sweepers are large vehicles that remove small debris from our streets such as nails, glass, dirt, and leaves, cleaning about 163 miles of street each month. Our street sweeper vehicles house two large broom heads that spin, pushing debris towards the center where it is then vacuumed up into a large tank. This helps keep our roads clear and residents safe, prevents these items from entering our storm drains, and helps keep debris from creating failures in our roads.

We have two personnel on-call every month and all employees on standby for emergencies 24/7 to respond to calls as quickly as possible.

In addition to street sweeping, the Streets Division performs other maintenance tasks such as filling cracks and potholes, painting crosswalks, and maintaining traffic signals. When it comes to these tasks, they place high importance on doing it the right way. A great example of this is our pothole program; instead of simply filling the existing hole with an asphalt patch, our team takes the time to create a repair that will withstand the strain of day-to-day wear. To accomplish this, they cut out a 3ft x 3ft square around the pothole, remove all debris, apply adhesive, and fill the square with an asphalt patch. Finally, they use a machine to compress the patch and prevent breakage. While this attention to detail makes performing day-to-day tasks more tedious, Street Crew Supervisor Demetrio Martinez likes to offer this reminder to the team: “If things are not right, it's up to us to make it right. If things are hard, as a team, we can make it easy.”

Another day-to-day task that our Streets Division oversees is the creation and installation of signage, one of the most important tools our streets crew uses to keep residents safe. The Streets Division operates a fully equipped Sign Shop to produce and install road signs.

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“Stop signs are our number one priority as well as speed limit signs. It is also very important to have street name signs at every corner so that emergency services can find an address quickly,” said Traffic Signal & Sign Technician Antonio Valle.

Creating and installing signs is only one way that the Streets Division assists in times of emergency: “We have two personnel on-call every month and all employees on stand-by for emergencies 24/7 to respond to calls as quickly as possible so that our residents and visitors can travel safely through our city,” said Demetrio Martinez. When the city experiences inclement weather, the Streets Division is there to make sure all roads are open and safe for emergency vehicles. Whether they’re operating heavy machinery or painting a crosswalk, our Streets Division team members work together as a team to keep our city moving: “From the time employees get hired, I encourage them to get to know who you work with because we see each other more than immediate family,” said Martinez. “We help each other on the weekend when it has nothing to do with work; we have become great coworkers and friends.”