Engineering & Public Works

Wayne Houle
City Engineer and
Director of Public Works

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The City of Edina is a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis.  It has a land mass of 16 square miles with a population of approximately 47,000. Edina's infrastructure—its streets and curbs, storm and sanitary sewers, bridges, walking paths and sidewalks, water mains, hydrants, pumping stations and wells (all the behind-the-scenes equipment and structures that form the physical backbone of the  City), are in the care of the employees of Edina's Public Works Department.

Covering engineering, streets, equipment and fleet mechanics, and utilities (sanitary and storm water sewers and water delivery systems), the employees of Edina's Public Works Department are charged with the day-to-day operation and maintenance of Edina's infrastructure, Public Works employees efficiently and responsibly care for:

230 miles of roadway
18 deep water wells
4 water treatment plants
4 water towers with a three million-gallon total capacity
4 million gallons of water in underground reservoir
23 sanitary sewer lift stations
11 storm sewer lift stations
80 miles of storm sewer mains
180 miles of sanitary sewer mains
200 miles of water mains
25 miles of sidewalk and eight miles of walking paths
3 municipal parking ramps
$6 million in rolling stock (vehicles and equipment), including automobiles, mowers, trucks of every description, snowplows, street sweepers, fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars

As you can imagine, some very specialized expertise is required to care for this diverse array of structures and equipment.

The Edina Engineering Department is the City's contract manager for the construction of municipal facilities associated with new developments and other City construction.  The department also oversees all contract maintenance and construction projects.

The Edina Street Department's highest profile job is the plowing and sanding of City streets.  Street Department crews normally clear all streets curb-to-curb within eight to ten hours of a snowfall.  Edina crews begin plowing and sanding immediately, before we or anybody else may declare a snow emergency. Street sweeping is done year-round, weather permitting, to keep the debris out of storm sewers, lakes and ponds. Each year approximately 15 street miles of City streets are reconditioned with new asphalt (or concrete) and seal-coating.  Sidewalks, curbs, and gutters are also replaced, when necessary, during these periodic overhauls.

The Electrical Department's crew maintains all heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and electrical systems in City-owned buildings and along City streets and rights-of-way.  The department also maintains about 600 roadway light fixtures and 7 municipally-owned traffic signals and some maintenance on 7 State owned signals.

The Traffic Sign and Pavement Marking Department is responsible for the manufacture, installation, and maintenance of more than 4,500 advisory and regulatory signs located primarily along City avenues and boulevards.  Traffic lane stripes are painted on 45 miles of City streets every year.

The Utilities Department constantly monitors the City's water supply, insuring its purity and abundance. Also, provides maintenance on sanitary sewer and storm systems. This includes many wells and lift stations, approximately sixty locations. These personnel are licensed by the State of Minnesota to operate systems.

The Equipment Operation Department (Mechanics) maintain over six million dollars of rolling stock which is replaced based on an approved equipment replacement schedule.

For more information, call 952-826-0376.

The City of Edina is seeking qualified development proposals for the redevelopment of the Public Works Building site at 5146 Eden Ave., and relocation of that facility to a larger site. Learn more:

	You'll need version 3.01 or later of Adobe Acrobat Reader™ to view and print some of these documents.
Request for Proposals	Download the RFP.
Zoning Map	Download a zoning map.
Aerial Photo	Download an aerial photo of the site.