Municipal Engineering & Planning Services Drive Expansion for Robins Community

Suburban Bedroom Community Requires Strategic Municipal Engineering & Planning Services

When Snyder & Associates opened its Cedar Rapids office in 1992, the City of Robins quickly hired the firm as its engineering representative. Initially, our team’s work consisted of development reviews and other day-to-day duties. Over the next almost three decades, however, we’ve partnered with the city on many successful projects ranging from street reconstruction, water and sewer planning, stormwater improvements, and recodification and annexation assistance. Our involvement as city engineering representative has allowed the community to carry project history forward through further expansion and development — improving public infrastructure and creating a better quality of life for residents along the way.

The Snyder & Associates team members assigned to work with the Robins community have forged long-term relationships with city staff throughout this thirty-year partnership. These relationships have created continuity and provide us with the insight to understand better the goals and direction of the community and its leaders. Our staff stays current on the pressing issues through regularly attending city council and zoning meetings, as a member of the Robins Economic Development Initiative (REDI), and as the city representative to the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

Overseeing the Day-to-Day Engineering & Planning Services at the Heart of What We Do

Among the services that Snyder & Associates provides for the City of Robins are general engineering services, site development reviews, water and sewer utility extensions, master planning, street reconstruction and maintenance projects, multi-use trail design, city zoning and land use planning, and traffic engineering, to name a few. But perhaps most importantly, Snyder & Associates brings extensive resources to the table that help the city locate and secure the funding they need to make their project concepts a reality.

No project is too big or too small for our experienced team. Backed by planners, engineers, designers, landscape architects, surveyors, and construction managers, the city engineer handles all day-to-day responsibilities, with the ability to quickly consult experts in various fields when necessary. Among the varied tasks the city engineer manages are:

• Parcel split application reviews
• Performing right-of-way agent duties
• Communication with regulatory agencies
• Grants and funding procurement applications
• Consultation with city staff on project progress
• Regular attendance of city council meetings to provide updates
• Conducting frequent coordination meetings with stakeholders during projects

Also, the city engineer takes a leading role in periodic capital improvement planning efforts on the city’s behalf. The Capital Improvement Program (CIP) is a roadmap for prioritizing future infrastructure project importance. The CIP often includes stormwater drainage and water system studies performed to assess future community growth.

Comprehensive Engineering & Planning Projects Highlight the Range of our Expertise

The number of projects we’ve managed for the City of Robins over the years is extensive. A look at just a few of the projects completed recently provides a compelling snapshot of the broad scope of our abilities to support communities.

Main Street Reconstruction

The colored, stamped concrete adds a decorative aesthetic to the intersections in the project area.

As a central, east-west corridor through the community, Main Street has been the target of several upgrades to transform it from a ditch-lined, rural roadway into a safe, urban corridor. The most recent section from Troy Road to Mentzer Road included replacing the roadway with new concrete, shared bicycle lanes, and ADA-accessible sidewalks along both sides.

This ½-mile-long reconstruction project area also upgraded an existing railroad crossing. It provided new driveway and entrance aprons for all businesses and residences and new street lighting along the corridor. Colored concrete with a decorative stamped pattern was used to designate the new crosswalks at the Troy Road and Mentzer Road intersections.

South Troy Park Trail & Upgrades

The new South Troy Park Trail system completes a critical connection with the Cedar Valley Nature Trail.

South Troy Park is a popular gathering spot for the Robin community, offering several baseball fields and a playground area. Our team has expanded the usability of this facility with numerous improvements in recent years. The largest was the design of a trail system that encircles the western baseball fields and connects the park to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. The connection was completed by a 140-foot-long pedestrian bridge developed by Snyder & Associates subsidiary, Shuck-Britson.

Most recently, the addition of a community building with restrooms and a pavilion area will double as an amphitheater for future community festivals and events. A new parking lot adjacent to the facility doubled the available hard-surface parking stalls. While these beautification and improvement efforts have localized, neighborhood-specific impacts, they create healthy and family-friendly improvements desirable for attracting new members to the community.

City-Wide Comprehensive Infrastructure Plan

Recognizing the need for proactive measures to handle future growth, Robin’s city leaders enlisted the professionals with Snyder & Associates to compile a comprehensive infrastructure report. This report developed a plan for short- and long-term infrastructure needs and created a step-by-step blueprint to guide the community going forward.

Our planning team developed viable strategies to address current infrastructure needs, accommodate growth and development, and fund new projects. We prioritized the plan’s goals by reviewing and expanding upon previously studied infrastructure systems. This was accomplished by analyzing topography and future land use mapping, establishing an inventory of existing systems usage and capacity, coordinating growth with city staff and stakeholders, and estimating future needs.

At Snyder & Associates, we provide our clients with day-to-day services that are proactive, responsive, and cost-effective. We help communities plan responsibly for sustainable growth and work diligently to nurture strong relationships, appreciate multiple perspectives, and respect the culture of each community we serve. Most importantly, we know it takes experienced, skilled professionals to hold the trusted position of municipal engineer. We have earned that trust with many cities and towns like Robins.