Capital Improvement Planning Program Model

About the Program

Category: Planning (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The County of Orange OC Waste & Recycling owns and operates the three active landfills in Orange County and the closed sites. In 2014, OC Waste and Recycling recognized a need to create a high-level overview of the department’s capital projects. The planning model provides a decision-making tool to identify the impacts of changes in tonnage, project schedules and budgets. The Capital Improvement Planning Program Model is worthy of a NACO Award because it improves the administration of an existing county government program by allowing different scenarios to be run so the department may rapidly assess impacts and to plan prudently in response to change(s). The resulting report provides transparency of capital planning to stakeholders. The Capital Improvement Planning Program Model brings together the different disciplines of Project Management, Quality Control and Quality Assurance, Engineering, Budget and Finance to address the shared issues of having a reliable methodology for the planning of Capital Projects and the ability to anticipate the effects of different scenarios across the Orange County Landfill system. In addition, this Capital Improvement Planning Program Model is unique in that it enhances the transparency of planning and phasing the landfills projects, which in turn facilitates effective public policy making. Although OC Waste & Recycling enjoys ample long-term capacity for the present, once the three active landfills are closed, local waste management options are limited. While the hope is that technology will come to offer better methods for waste disposal in future, the best use of the system for our constituents is to extend the life of the landfills as long as possible. This system assists in these planning efforts.