Episode 150: APWA - 2026 National Briefing

This National Briefing segment is presented by Matt Morreim City of Shorewood, Minnesota and features the American Public Works Association (APWA) Winter Maintenance Subcommittee. The Winter Maintenance Subcommittee’s mission is to promote the development and use of the safest, most cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally sensitive winter maintenance technologies, equipment, materials, and practices; thus providing citizens with excellent quality of life during the snow and ice season.

Check out their work and get more information about APWA’s  Winter Maintenance Subcommittee at their website https://www.apwa.org/group/winter-maintenance-subcommittee/  or by emailing Matt Morreim at mmorreim@ci.shorewood.mn.us

Watch the video and presentation along with all the other briefings on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Talkinwinterops or listen on the Talkin Winter Ops podcast at https://transportation.org/winter-weather-management/sicop-talks-winter-ops/ or wherever you get your podcast content.

Sign up for email notifications on future episodes and other communications associated with winter maintenance and winter weather management by clicking on subscribe on the Talkin' Winter Ops website at TalkinWinterOps.com

Thanks for listening in and stay safe out there!

Transcript

Rick 0:11

Welcome back to Talk in Winter Ops. It's that time of year again when we sit down with other organizations working in winter maintenance to catch up on what they've been doing this past year. I'm Rick Nelson, and I'll be your host for the 2026 National Winter Maintenance and Road Weather Briefing Series. These briefings give us an opportunity to catch up with our partners in winter maintenance and road weather, learn about what they've been working on over the past year, and hear about their plans for the future. More importantly, they give you a chance to see how these ideas, tools, and initiatives might fit into your own operation. So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's catch up with our partners across the country to hear about what's new and what's coming up next.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Hi. I'm Jen Falgren, State Maintenance Engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. And for the last 14 years, I've been actively involved in the snow and ice community at the state DOT. And over the years, I've seen no shortage of new technologies, new products, and ideas come along. The challenge often isn't finding information, it's figuring out what really works and what makes sense for your organization. As someone who's been involved with the program for these many years, I've come to appreciate the role the Ashto Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program plays in helping agencies answer those questions. One of the things that I've always valued most is that this just isn't theory. It's practitioners helping practitioners. It's a chance to learn from the experience of others. Avoid reinventing the wheel and tap into a network of people who understand the same challenges that we face every winter. I've seen firsthand how these ideas and relationships built through this program have helped agencies improve safety, efficiency, and service to our traveling public. And with a modest annual contribution, your agency can take advantage of the same resources, webinars, workshops, and peer networks that have made this program so valuable to me over the years. If you're not already involved, I really encourage you to take a look at the ASHO Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program. Visit transportation.org forward slash winter-weather-management. You may find the answers to a challenge you're dealing with today. Or the next idea that really helps you move your winter operations forward.

Rick 3:05

And liaison to the Astros Winter Weather Management TSP for a long time. Matt, it's good to see you.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Thank you, Rick. Thanks for having me.

Rick 3:14

Matt, what's exciting happening over at APWA these days?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Well, in the winter maintenance realm, we just got done with our North American Snow Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, which was super exciting this year. This actually uh Cleveland was scheduled to be uh the snow conference in 2020, and we had a little thing called COVID. So this was a rescheduled uh took took many years to get the stars to align, but it was a lot of fun. Um, there's a lot of great training. Uh we hosted our winter maintenance supervisor and operator certificate programs there. Uh, big crowds for those. And uh yeah, it was great. We had a lot of great um events that we could talk with other winter maintenance professionals, and yeah, it was it was a lot of fun, and and uh that's probably the biggest thing, and we're kind of kicking off our uh training season here, uh, actually today, uh the last yesterday and today, and then tomorrow we have our virtual winter maintenance supervisor certificate program that's been going on, and we'll have our operator one this fall, so it's kind of the kickoff to our training season, if you will. A lot we have a number of them in August, and then September and October once we get into our winter season. So we're starting to start to get busy. Yeah.

Rick 4:44

So now this the the training program, I know we did a a talk in winter ops episode about the the operator and um and supervisor certificate program. If somebody's interested in uh getting one of those classes uh close to them, how do they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah, so we do have information on APWA's website. We're working, actually, we're kind of revamping our program. Um, I would say refreshing it. Um, we started that program in 2011, and so we're kind of finally we refresh it on an annual basis and kind of update the content, but we're doing a little bit more of an overhaul, which actually you're you're a part of that. Uh so thank you there. And uh as part of this, we're kind of looking at ways and working with some of our kind of newer uh partners that we have with our committee to update some of the information online. You can get to things online, you can there's uh links for it, there's a there's a drop page for it. Um, and you would go through APWA staff, which then that kind of funnels down to our committee, and then we basically take it from there to see if we can do that training. So we have we do, I think we have 14 different locations this year, and that includes virtual. So those are those aren't really locations, so about 12 locations across the United States and Canada. Um, but I would plan ahead. So if you want to do one this year, that's not gonna happen. But if you want to do one in 2027, it's good to plan now if you have any interest in that, because it takes some time to do the scheduling, get the dates, and then obviously get speakers. So we tend to have, depending on the different programs that we do, we tend to send three to five speakers, and if we can partner with some more local speakers that are familiar with the program, we will do that. Um, and then they travel out there, they give the training in person, and then uh yeah, then you can take that be certified in those uh different the supervisor or operator uh program.

Rick 6:57

Yeah, sweet. Now, uh how big a class are you looking to put together um each each go around?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

So it really depends. I mean, it depends on from chapter to chapter. We do have we've had some that um I've been a part of some, so we've traveled up to British Columbia every year, and we tend to have a couple classes there, so one might be 50 to 70 for the operator or supervisor, and then a different location might have 15 or 20. Um, I would say kind of a sweet spot is maybe 50-ish to 100, but we do them at the snow conference with around 200. So we certainly love the interaction with that certificate program. So at times, if it can if it gets a little too big, um, you maybe don't have as much interaction, but I still think there's there's a lot of value there. You still get a lot of different perspectives and there is interaction. Um, but with any large group, um, you know, there can be a little bit of downfall from that. But I would say if you have 30, 40, that's kind of a that's a pretty good number, but we routinely have 50 to 70, even you know, upwards of 100 at some of these locations.

Rick 8:16

Yeah, okay. So the best thing to do would be go to the website, maybe reach out to your local APWA chapter, coordinate through those folks, and get on the books.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yes, you can reach out to me too if for whatever reason you're not getting a response, reach out to me.

Rick 8:32

All right. Hey Matt, what were what were some big takeaways from the snow conference in Cleveland this year? I I wasn't able to make it, but uh you you mentioned that it was a a good event. Um tell us a little bit about the about the snow conference this year.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah, yeah, great question. I think uh one of the bigger things is just um resource, resources and and kind of the big coin term is AI. I would say AI probably took the cake as far as kind of the big theme, whether it was kind of how people interact with AI in their daily lives. Um, potentially, you know, uh we did have a speaker or two, just you know, they spoke um not through AI, obviously, but some of them created some of their presentations. I thought it was interesting, kind of the different ways that people were utilizing uh AI, and I think that's gonna be kind of a little bit of the theme going forward here. Um, I think operations tend to be a little bit behind on technology and kind of what we do and how it may benefit them. Uh, certainly coming up here, uh, we're doing a click, listen, learn in October, and AI is the topic, but it's AI as it relates to winter maintenance and how you can utilize it to your benefit. Um, and so we'll have a few speakers that kind of go through some real-world examples. So kind of expands on some of the things that we were hearing at the equipment show. I think some of the other things is with the tariffs uh that we were hearing from the show. A lot of our equipment materials uh come not from the United States. Probably the most notable one is carbide. Um, the price of carbide has like quadrupled or even more, just the little tiny insert that goes in some some of the cutting edges. And you know, looking at what those impacts do for any size organization, whether you're small, medium, large size, um, those impacts are going to be real and are probably not going away. At least the carbide one, we're not seeing any end in sight on that one. Um, other costs and dealing with the costs, you know, certainly since the snow conference, we've had the oil prices going up and seeing that, but a lot of those costs are pinching operations and big people are having to work more efficiently. Part of the reason why they attend these snow conferences is to kind of find ways to be more efficient, be more effective, and uh work you know within your budgets that may not be shrinking, but they in essence are shrinking because things are becoming more expensive.

Rick 11:29

Yeah, things don't stretch quite as far. No. Hey, so the click listen and learn you mentioned, um that's a really cool resource that APWA provides. What's what's the story on the click, listen, and learns?

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah, so click listen learns, they're every month. Um there's a different topic each month. So with APWA, there's anything from you know traffic, transit to waste management to winter maintenance. Um, each month kind of has their own theme. We typically do October because it's just right before winter, and do a topic uh related to winter maintenance, and so it's usually about a 90-minute online session, and we usually have two to four speakers that present uh for I don't know, 45-50 minutes to an hour, and then a bigger question and answer type virtual question and answer um ability to do that, and uh yeah, so I mean it's great. I mean, each month there's something that you're like, oh, okay, well, that's a good topic. These click lists and learns are meant to be kind of timely, so when we do have bigger topics like AI or some of these other type of things, um, they're not something that we would have talked about a couple years ago, um, and we're just finally getting around to it. So they're they tend to be timely topics that are that people can utilize in their kind of everyday lives, right?

Rick 12:58

And and and they focus on practitioners that are there, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Practitioners in the field, um, yeah, and it's just a little bit of everything. So there could be some design elements just depending on the month and the topics and who's putting together the click lists and learns. If you and again, if you go to APWA's website, they kind of lay out the schedule for everything, and they're months in advance um on kind of topics, and you can um, I believe it's a member resource. So if you're an APWA member, then you can go and and add those to your calendar and register for those, and then you know, once they come along and attend and and learn from those uh professionals that are putting those on.

Rick 13:40

You know, I think probably a lot of our listeners are from the dot community. And I don't know, I I just sort of get a sense that that the state agencies might be underrepresented in APWADU is is is that just uh a fallacy on my part or or do you think that's that's something that's fair to say?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Um I think overall it's probably fair to say, however, depending on what um what different discipline you're kind of dealing with and what area there, I think different DOTs are more active. Um I would say MindOt, Minnesota DOT. Uh we were just in Cleveland and Ohio DOT was pretty active and and um what was going on at least with the snow conference, and I'm assuming that's not a one-off with the conference. Um, you know, Alaska DOT, um Dan Chocker, he's very active. Um, and um there's support there. Um, but yeah, I mean, I I mean I've kind of heard it too. Uh obviously being APWA's liaison to Ashto with the technical service program. I've heard you know people say, well, that's a local thing. I I do I would not really say that. I mean, I my line is always we have way more similarities than we do differences, um, and we can all learn from each other. I really try to reach out to and actually on our our AI quick listen learn, we did reach out to DOTs. So I think we have one of the speakers is from a DOT, a state DOT. And uh there's things that we can learn from each other. I I think where locals you know have an advantage over the larger DOTs is we're more nimble. Um, so some of the technologies and things that are have been developed that DOTs really benefit from, they've been developed through a lot of the local agencies that you know vendors companies go to to say, hey, let's try this out. That's not as easy to do with DOTs, and now there's great research and and things that DOTs do that benefit everybody, including the DOTs. Um, but we I would say we being a member of APWA for a DOT would be a huge um huge plus for them because there's just a lot of resources that come along with uh the organization.

Rick 16:07

Yeah, yeah, I and I would agree with you there, Matt. You know, um and with respect to the local chapters, each each local chapter sort of takes on its own flavor and the things that are that are important to it. And you know, some may be much more technically in line uh or oriented than others. Uh you just sort of have to feel it out. But I think at the national level, there are tremendous resources available that that would that do benefit uh a state agency.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yep, agreed. And we, you know, and we try to be, we're I mean, we're on many our APWA, at least for winter maintenance, uh we're on many of the kind of uh you know, whether it's clear roads, um, you know, involved a little bit, uh maybe a little less so with Aurora, but uh a lot of times clear roads and Aurora are kind of tied a little bit together. Um with Ashto, um TRB, Dan Shocker's involved with TRB. So some of those are some of those organizations and groups that are a little bit more DOT um centric, um, we do or are involved with, and hopefully, I I would assume those organizations feel that we're providing important input along with the Ashto uh TSP.

Rick 17:28

The um I I want to just um sort of double back to the conferences again uh because uh we're uh gearing or you're gearing up for the Western Snow and Ice conference uh that happens every year in Colorado. That's a a pretty significant event that that takes place.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah, so end of September is the Western Snow and Ice out in Loveland, Colorado. So that um is is is a huge huge event that APWA is involved with. Uh we do the certificate programs at that conference as well, and we have a lot of our um our subcommittee members, our winter maintenance subcommittee members, our speakers out there, and there's a lot of great content and a lot a good show floor for there too to show all the equipment, and uh it's just it's kind of another uh great event, um you know, in a different time frame than the uh North American Snow Conference, uh, which is typically in April or early May. Uh so this one's usually always the end of September, and so it gives uh organizations another opportunity to learn from their peers and take a look at equipment. And uh yeah, I it's it's a really great event if uh you haven't been to it.

Rick 18:57

And and I would say it's a very reasonably priced event. You know, when when you look at uh meetings and conferences and things out there, it's it takes a significant uh financial commitment to attend those. I think from uh from a value point of view, the the Western probably has has the most value uh offering uh that there is. You know, when you look at the size of the equipment uh display that's there, the program and the uh rodeo, the equipment rodeo. Um if the people haven't had an opportunity to uh go to that event, you should really try to put it on your calendar.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Agreed.

Rick 19:45

Matt, anything else that uh we want to talk about with respect to APWA and your your winter maintenance uh committee that you have there?

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah, you know, the only other thing I would mention, and this is you know kind of on the training side of things, and I don't know how much DOTs um have really kind of heard about this organization, but APWA now has a training partnership with a company called BuildWit. Um, they're getting to be more well known, um mostly in the construction area, but they're looking to expand more into municipal type things, and they provide training, uh training videos, training modules that are short and digestible, which are good for operational folks. Um, and so APWA now has a training partnership, and that really was born out of our we have an operation and maintenance subcommittee, which a number of our uh members of our winter maintenance subcommittee were a part of, and that partnership has kind of grown over the last couple of years, and now we do have an official partnership with them. Um, you know, not selling people on it, but it's another option, a good option to provide um some good training opportunities for their employees in a in a uh again, a short digestible uh way. And there's anything from professional development of more uh supervisory things down to laying pipe, you know, if you're dealing with utilities and things like that. Um it's worth checking out, um, at least if there's at all any interest, you know, again, looking for ways to be more efficient and cost effective. Um, I know that uh the pricing for this is uh you know pretty decent, uh, especially if you're a you know a medium-sized organization. Some of the DOTs are larger, so it's you know a fairly small um uh investment, but uh that that is out there. Uh check that out. And I would say that's about it. I mean, we we've got a lot of stuff going on, and again, we're we're going into the season of training coming up here in a little over a month, kind of getting all of our travel plans getting ready. So uh we're excited to get out in the different areas and uh talk with folks and and interact with them and learn from them. We learn from them as well, and all of our different uh trainings that we do throughout uh United States and Canada.

Rick 22:19

All right. Well, hey, thanks, Matt, for joining us for this year's briefing. We really appreciate the update from APWA, and we look forward to uh working with you and and uh participating in those APWA activities throughout 26 and 27.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

All right, thanks, Rick.

Rick 22:39

Thanks for listening in on this year's national briefing. You can catch them all and other talk in winter ops episodes on our website, talkin'winterops.com, at the Ashto Winter Weather Management website at transportation.org forward slash winter-weather-management, or wherever you get your podcast content. Video versions of this briefing are available on our Talk and Winter Ops YouTube channel. Now, if something in this briefing sparked your interest, you can email me or our guests to keep the conversation going. Until next time, thanks for tuning in and stay safe out there.