Few municipal services shape a community’s quality of life so directly — so significantly — as public works projects. From road repairs and water main upgrades to park renovations and stormwater management, these projects impact the lives of residents and businesses in countless ways, every day, all year round.
For even the most experienced public works officials, managing a planned project load while balancing new demands is no easy feat. And of course, limited resources, tight budgets, and competing priorities add extra layers of complexity to these challenges.
That’s why we’ve compiled this list of seven simple steps to help you easily and efficiently prioritize your infrastructure projects, minimize disruption, and keep your community thriving.
1. Compile a comprehensive list of projects
First things first: Create a list of all infrastructure projects and initiatives, current and upcoming. Digital format is ideal, particularly for sharing purposes, but if all you have is a pen and paper, that will do.
We don’t expect you to know everything at this point; part of this process will involve reaching out to various teams and departments beyond your public works team, like utilities, parks, and transportation, to create as thorough a list as possible.
For each project, be sure to gather and record the following:
- Project description and scope
- Estimated costs and resource requirements
- Anticipated benefits and outcomes
- Potential risks and challenges
The more details you add, the clearer a view you will have of infrastructure needs and opportunities across your community. Even before you’re halfway done with it, this list will become a valuable, centralized repository of project information and the foundation for your prioritization process.
2. Establish clear prioritization criteria
Now that you’ve collected all of the available key project and initiative information, it’s time to start prioritizing the projects. Here, objectivity is crucial. Before you begin ranking your projects, it’s essential to establish clear criteria that align with your community's (and department's) values, goals, and regulatory obligations.
While some of your criteria may be unique to your municipality, here are some criteria common to all municipalities to consider:
- Public safety and legal requirements: Projects that address critical safety issues or ensure compliance with codes, regulations, and mandates.
- Infrastructure condition and risk of failure: Projects that focus on repairing or replacing aging, deteriorating, or failing infrastructure components.
- Economic impact: Projects that facilitate business growth, job creation, and property value enhancement.
- Quality of life: Projects that improve access to amenities, recreational facilities, green spaces, and other quality-of-life factors.
- Environmental sustainability: Projects that promote energy efficiency, water conservation, waste reduction, and other sustainable practices.
3. Engage stakeholders and gather input
Now, do your project priorities criteria of Step 2 align with the needs and preferences of those who will be most impacted? The best way to find out is to engage directly with the people, businesses, and organizations your projects will impact, for better and for worse. When seeking community input, consider the “Three C’s of Stakeholder Engagement” to test and validate your project prioritization:
- Conduct public meetings and surveys to understand community priorities and concerns
- Consult with subject matter experts, advisory committees, and industry professionals to gain insights
- Collaborate with neighboring municipalities to identify opportunities for regional coordination and resource-sharing
It’s always a best practice to be in communication with your community, especially when done thoughtfully. Not only is this one of the best ways to validate your prioritization criteria, but a little effort on your part goes a long way to build trust, support, and buy-in among your community for your projects, plans, and longer-term goals.
4. Develop a scoring or ranking system
Once you’ve established (Step 1), determined initial criteria (Step 2), and stakeholder-validated (Step 3) your project list, it’s time to establish and apply a scoring or ranking system to help optimally arrange your list and lock in your prioritization.
This is likely highly unique to your municipality. Using the information you’ve gathered, you can now commit to a firm set of criteria determined by what matters most to your municipality’s and your community’s values and goals. Give each criterion a weight or score, with the most important being the heaviest. For example, while public safety and recreational amenities could both be important criteria, public safety may be given a higher score value / greater weight than recreational amenities. This process further helps maintain objectivity in the prioritization process.
Once the weights are determined, use a simple scoring matrix or ranking methodology to evaluate each project and compare project scores against one another. This systematic approach helps to remove bias from the decision-making process and ensures that projects are prioritized based on their overall value and impact.
5. Consider project dependencies and sequencing
By this point in the process, even if you’ve been meticulous, you’ll likely find new layers of complexity emerging as interdependencies and sequencing requirements between projects become more apparent. This is a good thing.
Some projects, regardless of their ranks or scores, are necessarily sequential. Some projects may need to be completed before others can begin, while others may be contingent upon the successful completion of related initiatives – even by other teams or departments (Good thing you reached out to all those other departments in Step 1, right?). Consider these objective, rather than subjective, organizing principles that can supersede your ranking system.
By prioritizing these projects specifically, you can create a logical, efficient sequence of infrastructure improvements that flow into each other for minimal disruption and maximum impact.
6. Allocate resources and funding
You’re almost there. You should be feeling pretty confident in the prioritization of your list. They’ve been ranked logically and objectively, informed by what matters most, with an eye on efficiency and flow.
Now it’s time for one more potential shake-up — factoring in available resources and budgets:
- Review current budgets and identify funding gaps or surpluses
- Explore alternative financing options, such as grants, public-private partnerships, and municipal bonds
- Develop a multi-year capital improvement plan that balances short-term needs with long-term goals and financial sustainability
By carefully allocating resources and funding to the highest-priority projects (or recognizing which projects may have to be put on hold until certain resources become available), you can ensure that the community's most pressing infrastructure needs are addressed while getting the most out of your budget and resources.
7. Communicate and implement the prioritized plan
Congratulations! It’s finally — finally! — time to share your prioritized project plan with internal and community stakeholders and begin implementation. It’s important at this point to be open to further feedback and transparent in how you arrived at the final list. Here are some tips:
- Clearly explain the rationale behind project rankings and the expected benefits to the community
- Establish accountability measures and progress reporting mechanisms to ensure that projects stay on track and on budget
- Remain flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances, such as new regulatory requirements, emergencies, or shifting community priorities
By continuing to maintain open lines of communication and demonstrate tangible progress, you can further build trust and support for your ongoing infrastructure improvement efforts.
Make supporting your efforts with the right partner your first step
By following a systematic approach to your municipality’s infrastructure projects, particularly one that involves compiling project data, establishing clear criteria, engaging stakeholders, and developing an objective scoring system, you can lead your team, and community, in making informed decisions that maximize the impact of your resources and budget.
Partnering with SAFEbuilt can provide valuable expertise and support throughout the entire prioritization and implementation process. With our knowledge of industry best practices, regulatory requirements, and project management techniques, our experts can help municipal officials like you navigate the challenges of infrastructure improvement faster and easier than ever before.
