The Public Works Department delivers safe, reliable, and sustainable services across engineering, environmental compliance, waste, fleet, streets, water, and wastewater. Through measurable goals and continuous improvement, we ensure efficient infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and responsive service to our community.
The Public Works Department has made the following performance-related dashboards available to the public.
- Solid Waste and Recycling
- Graffiti and Potholes
- Wastewater
- Environmental Compliance
Solid Waste and Recycling
Waste collection is an essential service in every community and a massive undertaking for a town as large as Gilbert.
The most important goal of waste collection is to protect public health. Still, Gilbert Public Works is also focused on protecting the environment, conserving space and natural resources, reducing waste, and maintaining community aesthetics.
Monitoring the number of missed trash and recycling pickups helps the team recognize and prevent potential issues in the system. At the same time, Gilbert’s container maintenance program prolongs the lifespan of its curbside trash and recycling cans.
Missed Pickups
The Goal: Miss less than .05% of Gilbert’s daily trash and recycling pickups.
Gilbert’s solid waste trucks provide service to 83,000 homes each week.
Monitoring the number of missed trash and recycling pickups helps the Town’s Public Works Department:
- Identify staffing issues or gaps in service delivery
- Distinguish the need for more driver training
- Recognize updates needed to the service map
Container Repairs
The Goal: Repair all broken trash and recycling cans within five business days of the initial request and schedule all maintenance services for the day after the containers are set out for trash and recycling collection.
Gilbert’s container maintenance program is a pivotal element in providing waste collection services for the community as it helps maintain and extend the lifespan of the Town’s trash and recycling containers while also:
- Supporting sustainable waste management practices
- Reducing costs associated with waste collection
- Enhances waste collection efficiency
- Maintains community cleanliness
- Helping Gilbert meet environmental and regulatory standards
In 2022, Gilbert’s Solid Waste and Recycling division serviced 21,609 broken cans through the container maintenance program.
Making container repairs the day after a customer’s scheduled collection day is ideal because the trash and recycling cans are usually empty.
Waste Diversion and Recycling Program
The Goal: 17% of recycling tons diverted per month.
Gilbert’s recycling program is a pivotal element in waste collection services for the community and represents how much waste is diverted from the facility without burning or sending it to the landfill.
Graffiti and Potholes
The Gilbert Public Works Department also oversees several quality-of-life and safety services within the community, including pothole repairs and graffiti removal.
Repairing potholes in Gilbert’s roadways is essential for safety, preventing vehicle damage, and improving our community’s driving conditions and traffic flows. Moreover, removing graffiti issues helps the town maintain a clean and visually appealing environment.
Graffiti Removal
The Goal: Remove 90% of graffiti reported by residents through Gilbert 311.
A small percentage of the graffiti requests are incomplete because the graffiti is unreachable. For example, it could be under a bridge.
In other cases, the Town may receive several different reports for the same piece of graffiti.
Pothole Repairs
The Goal: Repair 90% of potholes reported by residents through Gilbert 311.
Potholes can create a safety hazard on our roads. That’s why Gilbert is committed to addressing these issues quickly.
While our maintenance teams aim to repair 100% of the potholes reported, there are a few challenges when it comes to data quality and the way these issues are reported, tracked, and repaired
In a small number of cases, a single pothole may need several repairs, or multiple potholes might be reported as one but are then separated in the Town’s work order system.
These differences create small discrepancies, and while our teams work to minimize them, they will only be eliminated as we refine our processes and continue to check the quality of our data.
Additionally, potholes are only a single factor among many when it comes to the condition of a road or street.
We track the quality of road segments using a Pavement Condition Index (PCI), a series of numbers that ranks roads based on the severity of defects present.
A road segment’s PCI ranges from 0-100, with 100 representing a road that is in perfect condition
The more a road is used, the more defects like potholes, cracks, and recesses form, and the condition of that road worsens.
When a road reaches a PCI of 40 or below, it is added to a backlog and scheduled for partial or full reconstruction rather than repair.
Maintaining a low percentage of backlog for pavement management is crucial for safety, cost-effectiveness, user satisfaction, infrastructure longevity, and economic well-being.
Wastewater
Wastewater collection is another essential function of Gilbert’s Public Works Department.
Gilbert schedules regular sewer pipe cleanings and routinely monitors its infrastructure using video technology to protect public health and ensure optimal functionality of the Town’s wastewater collection system.
Sewer Pipe Cleaning
The Goal: Clean 20% of Gilbert’s wastewater collection system annually which equals 182 miles of sewer pipes.
This ambitious target ensures a systematic approach to maintaining the wastewater system’s integrity and functionality.
These regular cleanings play a critical role in preventing blockages and long-term damage to Gilbert’s infrastructure, as well as:
- Protecting public health and alleviating odors within the community
- Preventing early sewer pipe, manhole, or lift station failures
- Reducing hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that can form in septic conditions
- Mitigating potential financial damage claims caused by sewer issues
Gilbert uses a pressure washing system to clean its sewer pipes. The trucks that clean the pipes have 1,300-gallon water tanks that spray water at 1,500 to 2,000 pounds per square inch.
The cleaning process relies heavily on the maintenance team’s experience and knowledge, and targets hotspot areas in the system that need more frequent cleanings.
Video Monitoring and Inspections
The Goal: Conduct regular video inspections on 15% of Gilbert’s sewer pipes a year which equals 137 miles.
Regular video inspections of the Town’s sewer pipes using closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) offer a comprehensive visual assessment of pipe conditions and provide essential information regarding the location, severity, and extent of any issues encountered in the pipes.
These inspections ensure a proactive and efficient approach to managing Gilbert’s sewer system. They allow staff members to make informed decisions, prioritize resources effectively, and ultimately enhance the sewer network’s overall functionality and longevity.
These video inspections help the Gilbert Public Works Department:
- Identify pipes in poor condition
- Prevent overestimations in repair costs
- Detect illegal sewer connections
- Identify sources of inflow and/or infiltration
- Locate buried or lost manholes
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the Town’s pipe-cleaning operations
Environmental Compliance
Managing stormwater in Gilbert is important to reduce flooding, keep people safe, maintain clean water, and reduce soil erosion.
The Environmental Compliance Team has worked closely with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to determine the appropriate stormwater management goals to remain compliant with our MS4 Stormwater Permit.
Stormwater System Cleaning
The Goal: Clean 20%, or 84,000 linear feet of pipe, of the Town’s stormwater infrastructure every year.
The purpose of cleaning the storm system pipe and structures is to maintain their proper functionality and prevent blockages caused by sediment, trash, and debris buildup. Cleaning 7,000 feet a month ensures the stormwater infrastructure remains in good condition and can effectively handle water flow during storms.
However, achieving this goal has been challenging due to the high level of sediment, trash, and debris in the pipes and structures. Cleaning a single 500-foot pipe takes 10 to 15 passes, which significantly hampers the progress toward the monthly target.
External factors like contracting the work out due to a lack of resources have also hindered our progress. When relying on contractors, we often see equipment failure and employee absences that have also affected the efficiency of the cleaning process. The contractors are also required to have a CDL, which limits the time they can operate the truck; this includes travel time. We also have a decrease in productivity due to our employees having to meet the contractor to get them set up with maps and locations, which takes them away from their other daily tasks. The inflated contracting costs have also affected our budget availability for cleaning year-round. We typically can only clean 3 days a week and run out of funds before the year ends.
We have been approved to purchase our own cleaning equipment and staff to improve progress towards our goal. After implementing our new resources and learning curve, we anticipate meeting, if not exceeding, our current goal.
Stormwater Structure Inspections
The Goal: Inspect 4,992 stormwater structures every year.
Stormwater cleaning and inspections are to ensure the stormwater infrastructure remains in good condition and can effectively handle water flow during storms to prevent flooding and ensure safety. The Environmental Compliance Team has worked closely with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to determine the appropriate stormwater management goals to remain compliant with our MS4 Stormwater Permit.
Recently, we made some changes to the software templates used for inspections, which have resulted in discrepancies in the data recorded. This change was implemented to capture inspection start and end times. Additionally, because of this change, we have noticed that different employees use varied methods to input inspection information before moving it to work orders.
We discovered the discrepancy through the Performance Management process and are currently working with IT and our inspectors to streamline our process and ensure consistency and uniformity with data entry. While we are currently meeting our goals, we understand that the data does not reflect the proper quantities. However, we will have the data corrected as soon as possible, allowing us to tell an accurate story.