Public Works Management & Policy

Urban stormwater programs provide mandated and discretionary public services of convenience, security, and environmental enhancement. Due to their increasing complexity and funding needs, they have become more complex to organize and finance. Competing visions for them are common and how communities value these services creates a challenge to measure effectiveness and levy charges. Usually, two organizational models compete, the tax-supported public works model and the fee-based utility model. Taxpayer revolts led to the utility model, which creates new revenue streams and has been widely accepted but not universally. State laws provide the legal structure for stormwater finance, and research showed the utility model to be accepted commonly in the West Coast and Mountain regions, in Florida and along the southern part of the East Coast, as well as in parts of the Central region of the United States. The public works model is prevalent in much of the Northeast, the noncoastal Southeast, and parts of the Central region, where programs vary from state-to-state. Prospects for stormwater programs indicate more experiments with program organization and finance as communities seek to balance responsibilities. The competing views of stormwater program organization and finance s will join larger issues of local government roles in solving social and environmental problems and outcomes will be a bellwether of commitment to sustainable and livable communities.

Managing publicly owned entities using private sector principles, commonly known as New Public Management (NPM), is a widespread reform in Developing Countries. The theoretical and empirical debate on the effect of NPM on the performance of Public entities is still ongoing, yet limited research has been conducted in the water sector in developing countries. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression on 300 observations, the influence of adopting NPM reform dimensions of segregation of functions, managerial autonomy, accountability for results, customer orientation, and market orientation on technical efficiency of urban public water utilities has been addressed. The results indicate a high likelihood of the NPM reform causing a change in the technical efficiency of the Decision-Making Units (DMUs) in National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) in Uganda though it was not the case for the DMUs of Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (DAWASCO) in Tanzania.

This article addresses the impact of asphalt type and roughness on paint pavement marking retroreflectivity. Marking retroreflectivity and pavement roughness data were collected on two-lane highways in North Carolina. A t test was used to analyze the data. It was found that the mean values of the retroreflectivity measurements for the plant mixed pavements are significantly higher than those for the bituminous surface treatment (BST; chip seal) pavements. The mean left-wheel international roughness index (IRI) values and right-wheel IRI values for plant mixed pavements are lower than for the BST pavement. The conclusion is that marking crews should consider applying higher-quality paint markings (thicker paint and more glass beads) on BST pavements to achieve the same service life as the markings on plant mixed pavements. This would provide drivers with a more consistent and uniform marking retroreflectivity and the agency or municipality with a more consistent marking schedule.

A significant portion of funds in the United States for road maintenance and improvement are the levy of a fuel tax per gallon of fuel sold. The government mandated improvements in fuel efficiency of vehicles and the greater proportion of hybrid or nongasoline-powered vehicles expected to be used for passenger transportation are anticipated to adversely affect such revenues. In this study, readily available public domain data on new vehicle sales and survivability data are used to develop estimates of the future fleet composition by specific vehicle categories, vehicle miles traveled by the vehicle category, and fuel consumption by the vehicle category. It is then used to develop estimates. The model takes into consideration the emerging classes of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles, which were not adequately captured in the historical data. This methodology could be used to support policy and operations analysis related to highway financing and infrastructure management.

A risk-based approach to manage traffic sign inventories was developed for application in local public agencies (LPAs). The method incorporates key aspects of safety such as accident history and hot spot ranking and allows agencies to develop sign inventories strategically for a variety of staffing resources and budget levels. This method would enable LPAs to more easily comply with Federal Highway Administration Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) retroreflectivity guidelines and to prioritize the signs to be included in the inventory. A procedure has been developed that puts priority on reducing the risk of liability for sign-related accidents. The inventory developed as part of this research also supports the broader focus of better management of LPA roadway assets. Consistent and strategic updates of the inventory would provide the LPAs with a sustainable asset management system to utilize in the future.