Jacobs Keeps Up the Rhythm of Public Works in Cities Nationwide

Amid this global health crisis, have you wondered what it would be like if you didn’t have clean water for drinking and washing your hands? Or what it would be like if roads and traffic signals near you hadn’t been maintained properly, making it more difficult to get to the grocery store or your doctor’s office?

In communities where Jacobs performs public works services, these thoughts aren’t as worrisome.

Our Operations Management and Facilities Services (OMFS) professionals have been working diligently to organize staff and resources, sustain operations and manage contingencies during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. And while the pandemic has presented challenges, staff has remained on the frontlines to keep their communities operational.

“As we celebrate National Public Works Week, we recognize our staff’s commitment to supporting our client-partners, who rely on us day in and day out to ensure their communities continue to run efficiently,” says Jacobs Global Operations Management and Facilities Services Vice President Steve Meininger. “We remain committed to supporting our partners and are using this time to not only make changes to keep their communities running, but also increase satisfaction among their residents.”

This year’s National Public Works Week (NPWW) theme is The Rhythm of Public Works, viewing a community as a symphony of essential services that work in concert to create a great place to live. Whether our public works teams are building and maintaining roads and bridges, removing snow, managing traffic routes or improving their local park, they keep the rhythm of their communities going.

To celebrate NPWW, we’re sharing what some of our teams nationwide have been up to, all while taking precautions and practicing social distancing!

City of Centennial, Colorado

The Centennial Public Works Department has continued operating business-as-usual, but with less traffic on the road, the team has been able to perform work at a rapid pace and under safer conditions. This includes the day-to-day projects like concrete maintenance, crack seal, street sweeping, bridge rail painting, crosswalk painting, sign and signal maintenance and more.

The team continues to incorporate innovation into their street maintenance practices by including fiber-reinforced asphalt in roadway paving projects. Actual shredded fiber strands are included in the asphalt mix used for paving operations to provide added strength to the asphalt to resist cracking. The innovative technology has offered significant benefits, including slowing down the reflective cracking from the old pavement through new asphalt pavement installed as part of a mill and overlay. This reduces future maintenance costs by prolonging the life of the city’s street network.

And while the City asked residents to do their part and stay at home during Colorado’s stay-at-home order, Jacobs assisted with the City’s tree delivery program. The program helped celebrate Earth Day by delivering 75 trees throughout the community so residents didn’t have to pick them up. Centennial residents receive trees at a reduced cost to beautify their landscapes, and the community gets a boost from the cooling and atmosphere-enhancing effects of more trees.

Read more about our award-winning partnership with the City of Centennial.

City of Tucker and City of Stonecrest, Georgia

In Tucker, Georgia, the Public Works Department has been working like crazy to keep special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) funded road resurfacing projects on schedule, but they’re actually well ahead of schedule due to the decrease in local traffic. They worked with the City to use the campaign to raise awareness about social distancing and held their first-ever socially distanced ribbon cutting for the 2020 SPLOST kickoff.

Project staff is working closely with the nearby City of Stonecrest, also a Jacobs client, to complete these efforts. In just one month, they repaved 40 roads, a record completion due to current conditions. Thanks to the freshly paved roads, residents of both cities will enjoy fewer damages and repairs to their cars, lower fuel costs and a better traffic flow.

City of Ontario, Oregon

And in Oregon, the City of Ontario’s Public Works Department has continued to upgrade offerings throughout the city to keep up with residential demand, all while tending to their regular duties.

To make Ontario more attractive to youth residents and visitors, the city manager was inspired by a water trail in Michigan. After lots of planning, the City and local businesses came up with a 3.2-mile water trail along Malheur River. Jacobs will help design and construct the trail, which will allow visitors to launch canoes, paddle boards, kayaks, rowboats, tubes and more to float down the Malheur River. With an aim to complete the project by August, the team will build a series of docks and launch locations so residents can to take advantage of these recreational water opportunities at little to no cost.

They also recently completed a 10-foot wide paved multi-use path as part of Treasure Valley Connector Trail near Treasure Valley Community College (TVCC). It’s the first segment of a 4.1-mile trail that will offer biking, walking, commuting and running opportunities for the TVCC students and local residents.

And in a joint venture with the Ontario Lions Club and the City, the team installed a new playground structure and dog park at the popular Lions Park. These amenities will add to the already impressive offerings at the park, including a splash park, skate park, tennis courts and private party rental facilities.

Jacobs’ OMFS practice is comprised of 2,500 staff who provide operations and maintenance for water and wastewater utilities, buildings and industrial facilities, public works and municipal infrastructure throughout North America and in several international locations.