When it comes to the City of Fargo Engineering Department, we really touch all the infrastructure
our residents and businesses rely on every single day.
And so whether that's getting up in the morning brushing your teeth, we're part of the water
system that gets that water to your door.
Flushing your toilet or doing your laundry, whatever it might be, and then going off to
work or school, you're relying on the streets that we are overseeing, improving.
Simply as I can describe it is we're responsible for the preventive maintenance and preservation
of all of our infrastructure as well as the improvement of it, and then also overseeing
any work that's taking place within the public right away.
When you look at our water system, our sanitary sewer, storm sewer, street lights, traffic
signals, pavement, all those things, it's billions of dollars of assets that we're
responsible for.
It's really important that our inspectors are watching the work that the contractors
do.
This infrastructure will last as long as possible.
A road that lasts 30 years versus 50 years is a big deal.
And the longer we can extend our infrastructure and the life of our infrastructure, the cheaper
it ultimately is for our residents.
Gratifying knowing that the work we do today should last many decades, with the PVC pipe
that we have today, hopefully that lasts 50 to 100 years, and that we won't have to dig
it up and replace it anytime soon.
At a time it really varies.
Much construction season, we usually have about 60 construction projects taking place
throughout the city.
In total, capital improvement plan is usually right around $100 to $120 million annually.
We are a long linear city, and so this year we'll be working up on 52nd Avenue North,
all the way down to 76th Avenue South.
And so Fargo does extend a very long distance.
We do really try to be sure that the improvements that we're making are city-wide.
We do balance the resources throughout the city that way.
There are a number of funding sources that we use.
Utility funds are one of them.
Sales tax is another really important one.
We use sales tax on nearly every project we do that preserves our infrastructure or improves
our infrastructure.
Without it, we would really struggle to fund the projects that we do.
Property taxes don't go towards construction projects that we do.
We have a great tool that I don't know that everyone is aware of, but if you go to Fargo
Streets dot com, we have a great interactive map that shows all the work that's taking
place throughout the city.
You can see examples of who's doing the work, the size of the project, how the project is
being funded, which is a great resource that relies on GIS.
Well, it's not only a benefit to the residents, but to us as project managers or project engineers
and inspectors, because we get to see the project from its inception and how it was
designed.
It really gives us a better understanding of what we're going into before the project
even starts.
And we can kind of foresee some of the problems that might arise during a project and just
handle them probably a little bit more quickly.
A lot of people don't even realize all the things that we do in engineering until something
goes wrong.
Right.
And so if you're driving a road and you don't hit a pothole, you don't realize the infrastructure
that you rely on.
So unfortunately, a lot of times you don't realize the work we do in engineering until
something's got wrong.
The engineering department is made up of a lot of different personalities, all of which
are trying to strive for the same thing and make Fargo a better place.
We try our hardest from planning to construction.
We want to see Fargo grow and make it beautiful.