Laserfiche WebLink
CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2022 ATM& STMs 2022-1 & -2 <br /> Public Works <br /> The Department of Public Works (DPW) is responsible for design, bidding, construction, and project <br /> management related to Town infrastructure, including buildings assigned to the Department of Public <br /> Facilities (DPF). Routine maintenance and other operational activities are not capital-related and are not <br /> addressed by this Committee. <br /> The DPW is organized around seven divisions that are responsible for: Administration, Engineering, <br /> Highway, Public Grounds, Environmental Services, Water, and Sewer. The Environmental Services <br /> division manages solid waste, recyclables, yard waste from Lexington and private contractors, and <br /> hazardous products from Lexington and eight neighboring communities. <br /> Major components of DPW's FY2023–FY2027 capital projects include: <br /> • Road, sidewalk, and signalization improvements <br /> • Water distribution, sanitary sewer, and pump-station upgrades <br /> • Hydrant replacements and parking lot improvements <br /> • Town Water Towers major repairs or replacements <br /> • Comprehensive Watershed Stormwater Management improvements <br /> • Storm Drainage and National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) improvements <br /> • Hartwell Ave. Long-Range Transportation Improvement Planning <br /> • Trucks and heavy equipment necessary to accomplish the DPW mission <br /> A 5-year history of DPW capital appropriations appears at the end of this section; the CEC's 5-Year <br /> Capital Plan can be found on Page 11. <br /> DPW's capital needs—except when funded in whole or in part by the Town's Community Preservation <br /> Fund, Revolving Fund, or Enterprise Funds—must be funded by cash or financed through the general tax <br /> levy and/or voter–approved debt exclusions. Almost all construction projects for the sanitary-sewer <br /> system and for the water-distribution system are funded by Water- and Sewer-rate payers through the <br /> Enterprise Funds. Large trucks and heavy equipment used in support of the sanitary-sewer and <br /> water-distribution systems are also funded, either in whole or in part,by Enterprise Funds. <br /> Engineering <br /> Engineering work for all DPW projects is either done in-house or contracted through public procurement <br /> to outside consulting or design firms. In addition to supporting ongoing DPW work, Engineering is a <br /> major participant in DPW's future projects. The simple title of this Division does not reflect its enormous <br /> and crucial contributions across the breadth of the DPW's capital and operational activities. <br /> Roads <br /> Lexington has almost 200 miles of roads, which include Town, State, and unaccepted roads. This total <br /> consists of 131 miles of Town-accepted roadways (TAR), 18.5 miles of private/unaccepted roadways, and <br /> 46 miles of State highway. (Source: Stantec FY2017 Asset Management Summary, January 2017). The <br /> DPW maintains the TAR;the remainder are maintained by the private owners or the State. The DPW also <br /> maintains the Town's portion (5.3 miles) of the 10-mile Minuteman Commuter Bikeway (`Bikeway"), <br /> which opened in 1993. <br /> In Apri12010, the Town retained Fay, Spofford&Thorndike (since acquired by Stantec), a <br /> civil–engineering consulting firm,to develop and implement a Pavement Management System (PMS) for <br /> the TAR and its portion of the Bikeway. The first study was completed in November 2010 and has been <br /> updated annually. The PMS is based on an extensive roadway database describing pavement conditions <br /> and roadway characteristics, and originally reported conditions using a Pavement Condition Index (PCI), <br /> which is a 100-point scale with 100 representing the best possible condition. <br /> The Town has since changed to a new software system that uses the term Road Surface Rating (RSR) <br /> rather than PCI, and a new contractor (BETA Group) to do annual updates. The first BETA update, for <br /> FY2018, showed the average condition for the TAR continuing to improve, from a PCI of 77.0 the <br /> previous year to an RSR of 79.33. The Town's modeling of the entire road network found that the RSR <br /> 21 <br />