Public Works dedicates HQ, releases annual report

For National Public Works Week, Springfield Public Works is dedicating its main offices to its late former director alongside the release of its annual report.

The city’s Public Works Department is scheduled to hold a 2 p.m. dedication ceremony today for the renaming of the Public Works and Environmental Services Compound at 1111 W. Chestnut Expressway after Phil Broyles, the department’s director who died in March 2014 of cancer. Broyles had served as director since July 2011 after 30 years with the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The department’s annual report for fiscal 2016 released yesterday shows it spent 39.8 percent of its $49.5 million budget on transportation projects and 22.5 percent on street maintenance improvements and operations.

Other highlights from the annual report:
    •    For the city’s Zone Blitz campaign, Public Works invested more than $8 million over 18 months in infrastructure updates in the northwest quadrant of the city, including the installation of 13,700 linear feet of new sidewalks.
    •    The department repaired 2,298 potholes, cleared stormwater grates of debris and blockages 3,522 times and improved four railroad crossings.
    •    Completed projects included improvements to the Campbell Avenue and Primrose Street intersection and streetscape work on Commercial Street.