Public Works and Parks Operations 101

City of Nanaimo operations crews keep our city moving, and while most of the work takes place routinely (and in the background), it’s work that we all depend upon. Like breathing, we don't think about why we take in each breath, but if we go for a hard run or dive underwater, we quickly remember. Similarly, we all notice City service disruptions. If a sanitation truck goes down and a recycling pickup is missed, we take note. If a watermain breaks and water floods our neighbourhood, we notice that too. If our sewers were to back up - well, let's not think about that one.

The list goes on! City crews fix potholes, clear tree debris following a windstorm, program our traffic lights, mow our sports fields, make and place street signs, repair streetlights, brine roads to combat black ice, plow snowy roads, monitor coliform in our swimming areas, remove hazardous trees, plant beautiful gardens, sweep dirty sidewalks, trim overgrown trails, repair broken bus shelters, clear blocked culverts… operations teams keep on top of it all as quickly as they can.

When was the last time you thought about where the storm drain outside of your home leads? As long as only storm water flows into it, you don't need to think about it – the City's drainage team does that for you. Thankful for the yellow line that separates both directions of traffic on busy streets, or the street signs that mark your road for a parcel delivery? It wasn’t magic that put them there; it was the City’s Roads and Traffic crew.

In fact, there are five teams that work out of Public Works every day: Roads and Traffic, Water, Wastewater, Sanitation and Fleet Maintenance. With the Public Works Yard Updates Project, the City plans to bring some of the City's Parks crews to the yard as well, creating a more efficient use of the property.

There’s logic in bringing together the Parks and Public Works teams in this central location. The City’s Fleet Maintenance team services and repairs every piece of mechanical equipment the City has, from weed-eaters up to the arenas’ ice resurfacers, and further up to the City’s fire and recycling trucks. Fleet maintains more than 400 pieces of equipment including 200 vehicles.

The Public Works Yard Updates Project includes a new fleet maintenance facility with bays that can more efficiently accommodate the City’s largest vehicles. In 2012, the first seismic assessment of all public works buildings was completed. The fleet maintenance building scored the worst and has been flagged as a priority for replacement. It wouldn’t take much of an earthquake to knock it down. Because of this, a new fleet building is crucial as the City future-proofs the yard.

It's an unpleasant thought, to say the least, but should the fleet maintenance building become unusable, the ripple effect would be dramatic. From cancelled waste collection, to roads and parks that can’t be maintained, to arenas that would shut down because the ice can’t be resurfaced, without proper fleet repair, the City’s service delivery will become more and more limited in the aftermath of the facility’s closure. We hope the big quake never comes, but if it does, the City wants to be ready and able to respond. Besides being structurally unsound, the size, configuration and functionality of the shop does not serve the City’s modern fleet needs during even normal day-to-day activities.

The other significant component of the Public Works Yard Updates Project is a new crew & administrative building. As our community has grown over the past 30 years, the City has been bringing in temporary modular buildings to expand the original office space at the public works yard. These additions were meant to be used for a max of 20 years, and now 30 plus years later, they are still in full use. Like the fleet maintenance building, the administration building is well beyond its useful life and does not meet the needs of our growing community. Although it scored better than the fleet maintenance building, the administration building at public works also failed its seismic study and needs to be replaced.

In the meantime, the City’s Parks Operations and Public Works crews will continue to serve the community, as ready as ever to manage the infrastructure that keeps our city moving.