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Municipal Engineering
While no person, business, or industry has managed to navigate the current public health crisis unscathed, municipal staff and local governments are facing incredibly unique challenges in the wake of COVID-19. As we’ve worked with our partner communities to help them keep our roads paved, clean water running, toilets flushing, and life moving during this unprecedented time, we’ve found the following tips to be helpful.
The needs of each school parking lot differ almost as much as the needs of each student. There is no “one-size fits-all” solution to parking lot management, however keeping these 5 considerations in mind will help you stretch your budget and provide safe, reliable access to your school facilities.
2020 is officially here, and we’re looking forward to new decade full of helpful articles for you and your team. To kick things off, we’d like to share our most-loved content from 2019. From funding projects to flying drones, here are last year’s top articles.
We know that providing your residents with quality public resources, safe roads, and clean water is essential to creating a thriving community. We also know that locating the funds necessary to make improvements to local infrastructure can be incredibly difficult. This year, consider these financing opportunities to help you maintain, improve, and grow your community resources.
Beaver Creek is a tributary to the Milwaukee River running through the heart of the Village of Brown Deer. Recently, the Village partnered with R/M to transform a struggling eight-foot-wide channel of the creek, and its adjacent multi-use pedestrian trail, into a thriving community corridor.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has announced a new $75 million Multimodal Local Supplement (MLS) grant. Learn how this one-time, reimbursement grant opportunity can help your community cover up to 90% of your transportation project costs.
In the right situation, roundabouts can have major advantages over a traditional stop sign or signal-controlled intersection. Keep reading to learn how the use of roundabouts can result in an increase in driver safety, a more efficient traffic flow, a more aesthetically pleasing intersection, lower construction and maintenance costs, and a positive environmental impact.
In July of 2020, roughly 50,000 people will flood Milwaukee and its surrounding communities for the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Whether your municipality is adjacent to the City of Milwaukee or 60 miles away, the DNC will likely have an impact on your residents and businesses. In order to make the most out of this opportunity, preparation for an event of this scale needs to start now. Here are our best tips to help your community thrive during the DNC.
The rise in popularity of drones has opened the door to a variety of new opportunities for municipalities. Keep reading for 6 ways that drone use can add value to your construction projects and save your team time and money.
Many municipalities face the problems of declining roadway infrastructure and limited funds to pay for repairs. Adhering to a set road maintenance plan can help your municipality save time, money, and dramatically extend the life of your roads. Keep reading to learn how the Village of Hartland found success by adopting a new pavement management model.
Snow plowing and applying road salt was the accepted norm from the mid-20th century until just a decade or so ago. More communities are now using new technologies and methods that are ultimately cheaper, better for the environment, and most importantly provide the level of safety the public expects during winter storm events.
2018 has come to a close, and to commemorate this incredible year, we’d like to share the top five sustainability articles of the year with you. From bees to salt brine, read on for the topics you were most interested in!
Winter is generally an off-season for construction projects, but just because things slow down doesn’t mean that progress has to stop. Keep reading for 4 reasons why updating your GIS maps in the winter will benefit your community all year long and keep your municipal projects moving forward during the colder months.
The Village of Mukwonago recently committed to building a new 115-acre business park in its thriving community. The key to the development of the business park was a clear understanding of its community-wide infrastructure systems and how that expanded infrastructure would fit within the community’s infrastructure puzzle.
A primary positioning strategy is to proactively plan for, and develop, land into business parks that are shovel-ready for prospective buyers. There are many aspects involved to plan for, design, fund, and construct a new business park. These activities may be led by the municipality directly or may involve a public/private partnership approach with a developer.
Ruekert & Mielke, Inc. (R/M) provided the City of Sheboygan with electrical engineering services to layout and design an LED lighting system to serve their new SouthPointe Enterprise Campus. By going with an LED-based lighting system, the City will benefit through reduced energy consumption, lower maintenance, and longer-lasting fixtures.
As communities continue to look towards more sustainable infrastructure options, updating lighting systems is often a great place to start. Implementing an LED lighting system can mean not only a lower utility bill, but also a lower impact on the environment for your community.
Many municipalities face the problems of declining roadway infrastructure and limited funds to pay for repairs. Undertaking proper pavement maintenance at the appropriate time produces overall savings to the community. With limited funding for its road repair program, the City of Pewaukee used an innovative approach to resolve their roadway problems.
Most people think of pavement preservation as items that are directly related to maintenance and repairs to the pavement surface such as crack sealing, base patching, or slurry and chip seals. But anything that is attached or adjacent to the pavement surface is a candidate for pavement preservation.
Snow plowing and applying road salt was the accepted norm from the mid-20th century until just a decade or so ago. More communities are now using new technologies and methods that are ultimately cheaper, better for the environment, and most importantly provide the level of safety the public expects during winter storm events.
