When natural or manmade disasters hit a community, public works is uniquely positioned to fast-track its return to normalcy. Public works professionals know which roads flood first, the domino effects of debris that clogs ditches, and how infrastructure failures will ultimately impact safety. Through careful documentation, they thread the needle in telling the story of what the community has been through, which can usher in state and federal assistance and facilitate faster overall relief.

Tyler Hill serves as infrastructure projects manager for Boone County Public Works in Kentucky, and he's logistics section chief for the Kentucky Incident Management team. He's also vice chair of APWA's Emergency Management Committee. As he outlined in his June 2026 APWA Reporter article (linked below), and discusses during this week's edition of Public Works Radio, effective disaster recovery and debris cleanup hinge on key factors, such as creating relationships that must be in place well in advance of the days they are needed most.

Another critical theme coming out of this conversation with Tyler is just how vital public workers are as first responders when it comes to disaster relief, strategic cleanup, and bringing back some calm to a community during and after the chaos of a life-altering event.

Public Works Radio is hosted by Bailey Dickman, Senior Digital Marketing Specialist with APWA. Each episode dives into a wide range of topics designed to educate and inspire, making public works more visible to everyone, from the general public and elected officials to industry peers and the media. If you haven't already, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review the show, forward it to a friend, and drop us a note at podcast@apwa.org so we can hear your feedback directly!

More Show Notes and Resources

Public Works Radio Episode No. 4 “The Movement to Recognize Public Works Professionals as First Responders”: https://www.apwa.org/resource/the-movement-to-recognize-public-works-professionals-as-first-responders/

APWA Reporter Article, “Damage Assessments in Public Works: Where Recovery Begins”: https://apwa.partica.online/reporter/june-2026/features/damage-assessments-in-public-works-where-recovery-begins

APWA Emergency Management Committee: https://www.apwa.org/group/emergency-management/

APWA’s Focus on Emergency Management resources: https://www.apwa.org/education-careers/focus-on-public-works/focus-on-emergency-management/

APWA Natural Hazard Checklists covering response to tornados, hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, ice storms, and civil unrest: https://www.apwa.org/resources/resource-center/?_search=checklist

Tyler may be reached via email at: Thill@boonecountyky.org.

Boone County (KY) Public Works: https://www.boonecountyky.org/services/public_works/index.php

While it may be true there are more women in public works than there used to be, deeper questions still remain.

This week on Public Works Radio, the official voice of the American Public Works Association (APWA), we're joined by two individuals whose decades of passion for this line of work serve as inspiration to the next generation of young women ready to break into this field and lead it forward: Roby Whitehouse and Shannon Williams, PE.

Roby is the Assistant Public Works Director in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, a town she's been serving for nearly 30 years. For Roby, leadership didn't come from a single, predictable path. It came from years of hands-on experience across several areas of public works, including cemeteries, facilities, highway, parks, and waste management.

Shannon serves as Principal Engineer for Keller Associates in Salem, Oregon. She's worked in some form or fashion related to public works for 27 years. During this time, managing projects in everything from roads and bridges to dams and levees, wastewater/stormwater, and hazmat, she's learned a lot about asserting herself and owning her work.

Join us for a vibrant conversation with two respected public works professionals who just happen to be women. They’ll share how they got here, the challenges of working in a male-dominated field, nontraditional paths to leadership, and what changes when the workforce starts to look a little bit more like the communities it serves.

Public Works Radio is hosted by Bailey Dickman, Senior Digital Marketing Specialist with APWA. Each episode dives into a wide range of topics designed to educate and inspire, making public works more visible to everyone, from the general public and elected officials to industry peers and the media. If you haven't already, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review the show, forward it to a friend, and drop us a note at podcast@apwa.org so we can hear your feedback directly!

More Show Notes and Resources

APWA’s Workforce Development Committee: https://www.apwa.org/group/workforce-development-committee/

CareerZone’s Career Paths tools and resources: https://careerzone.apwa.org/career-paths

Host a Girls in Public Works Day with this toolbox: https://www.apwa.org/resource/girls-in-public-works-day-toolbox/

Roby Whitehouse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roby-whitehouse-b587a346/

Shannon Williams, PE, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-williams-pe-b737a422/

To advance, streamline, and modernize their water utility infrastructure, Sugar Land, Texas built what they call a dual-horizon predictive management system. The framework works to predict long-term pipe wear and flags pipes at risk using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Just last week Alence Poudel, PE, the Senior Engineering Manager in Sugar Land, presented these findings at PWX in a session about AI, engineering, and future-proofing Sugar Land's water system.

We caught up with him and his colleague Trevor Surface, the Utility Field Operations Manager in Sugar Land, who also presented at PWX, to learn more.

The dual-horizon predictive management system works. We know that the model correctly flagged more than 82% of the pipes that failed in Sugar Land. By 2025, main breaks had dropped 25 percent.

But sometimes AI falls short, and while everyone is excited to introduce tech to meet the demands of growing costs, budget concerns, and rising community expectations, both Alence and Trevor agree that introducing a shiny new piece of sophisticated tech might not always be needed (or smart). While the promise of what this technology can do is incredible, they remind us not to forget we still have a long way to go, and nothing right now can replace human judgement.

Public Works Radio is hosted by Bailey Dickman, Senior Digital Marketing Specialist with APWA. Each episode dives into a wide range of topics designed to educate and inspire, making public works more visible to everyone, from the general public and elected officials to industry peers and the media. If you haven't already, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review the show, forward it to a friend, and drop us a note at podcast@apwa.org so we can hear your feedback directly!

More Show Notes and Resources

Alence Poudel, PE on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alence-poudel-pe-6452a0179

Trevor Surface on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-surface-361050161/

Sugar Land Public Works: https://www.sugarlandtx.gov/98/Public-Works

Several of the research papers referenced in this episode are available here:

Dual-Horizon Water Main Planning Using Anchored Weibull and Enhanced XGBoost Models

A governance audit framework for large language model advice in civil infrastructure decision-making illustrated with local risk models in Sugar Land, Texas

Governance risks of AI reasoning in urban infrastructure through Delphi audit of human and large language model judgment

Hybrid human-AI governance framework for accountable decision-making in urban infrastructure management