About Us: Public Works

The Public Works Department manages essential transportation, pedestrian and drainage infrastructure, as well as critical natural and urban environmental resources for Pinellas County. The department also develops and manages capital projects for the county while ensuring the protection of our natural and built resources.

We strive to be responsive and work with citizens to provide services such as mowing, urban forestry, mosquito control, traffic control and sidewalk, road, drainage and bridge maintenance.

Capital Improvements

Capital Improvements manages the delivery of capital and infrastructure projects for Pinellas County’s Public Works, Parks and Conservation Resources, and Solid Waste departments. The division identifies and prioritizes projects through a coordinated effort that integrates planning and development, engineering, construction, financing requirements, and future operating and maintenance costs.

Construction

The Construction Division is responsible for the management and inspection of all contracted construction activities for capital improvement infrastructure projects initiated by other divisions within the department.

These services include:

• Pre-construction plan reviews.
• Inspections.
• Emergency evaluations and response.
• Overseeing contractors’ performance on project construction.
• Construction services to other departments and divisions outside of the Public Works Department, including the County’s Utilities, Solid Waste, Community Development and Parks and Preserves Departments.
• Overseeing construction activities performed by private contractors on Utilities infrastructure to ensure compliance with County standards.

Customer and Technical Services

Customer and Technical Services is focused on continually improving the services provided to the citizens of Pinellas County.

This division is very diverse, specializing in the areas of:

• Inventory and facility management.
• Education and community outreach.
• Asset management.
• Work management.
• Purchase requisitions.
• Tracking, reviewing and processing all design plans, contracts, specifications, agreements and project schedules to facilitate consistency and quality control.
• Handling citizen inquiries and concerns.

Environmental Management

The Division of Environmental Management is responsible for monitoring and protecting Pinellas County’s environmental resources.

The Environmental Management Division:

• Monitors and assesses the quality and health of our local waterways and associated habitats.
• Manages over 35 miles of sandy beaches.
• Provides permitting services for dock construction, dredge and fill and mangrove trimming.
• Oversees the surface water assessment.
• Enforces multiple ordinances, including those pertaining to stormwater quality, landscaping and fertilizer management and mangrove protection.
• Implements the adopt-a-pond program.
• Provides public education and outreach, including certifying local landscapers in best management practices as required by county ordinance.
• Maintains and enforces clean air standards to protect and improve the outdoor air quality for the health of our residents.

Stormwater & Vegetation

The Stormwater & Vegetation Division manages a range of activities, including:

• Floodplain Management
  The Pinellas County Floodplain Management Program was developed to protect and improve the county’s natural and beneficial floodplains and to reduce flood losses due to major storms and heavy rainfall.
• Mosquito Control
  Mosquito Control provides for an environment as free of mosquitoes as possible for the comfort and well-being of the public. We monitor the environment for increased mosquito populations and for the presence of any mosquito-transmitted diseases and take proper abatement actions. Mosquito Control uses an integrated pest management program, largely focusing on larviciding and source reduction.
• Urban Forestry and Landscape Services
  Urban Forestry and Landscape Services is responsible for the maintenance and management of urban tree populations in unincorporated areas within the county, as well as the turf and other vegetation in county-maintained right-of-ways and medians for the purposes of both sustaining and improving the quality and appearance of the county’s urban environment.
• Vegetation Management
  Vegetation Management controls invasive and nuisance aquatic and terrestrial plants in our stormwater, retention, permitted ponds, lakes and ditches. Control methods are a combination of approved herbicide treatments and manual removal. These methods improve drainage in our ditches and canals and helps to reduce mosquito breeding. These methods also encourage native plants to grow and provide a better habitat for wildlife. We also control vegetation near roads, curbs, bridges, guardrails, handrails, signs and sidewalks for the safety of the public.
• Watershed Planning
  Pinellas County is updating the Watershed Management Plan for each of its drainage basins. These plans guide the County in providing flood protection, managing environmental resources and improving surface water quality.

Survey and Mapping

The Survey and Mapping Division provides survey and mapping services to all departments and divisions within Pinellas County Government, focusing primarily on Capital Improvement Projects (CIPs) and supporting the department’s initiatives and operations.

The Division also:

• Performs research of historical land records.
• Reviews subdivision plats.
• Provides Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping services.
• Prepares sketch and descriptions for acquisition and disposition of property.
• Prepares various survey maps.
• Exhibits and conducts parcel right-of-way and easement staking.
• Performs Boundary, Topographic, As-built/Record and Construction Layout Surveys.
• Performs sub-surface utility locating.
• Provides utility coordination services.

Note: Pinellas County’s Survey and Mapping Division only surveys county-owned property. The division does not survey or have copies of surveys of privately-owned land. For a copy of your survey, contact a local Land Surveyor, title company or the attorney that handled your closing.

Transportation

The Transportation Division manages handles critical maintenance, operations, planning and engineering tasks, including:

• Bridge and Roadway Maintenance
  Maintains county bridges and roadways, curbs, fences, handrails, guardrails, sidewalks and the Pinellas Trail. Operations include nonstandard drainage structures, retaining walls and items requiring structural design.
• Traffic Maintenance
  Installs and maintains Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) infrastructure, construction project management, ITS network support, countywide sign and pavement markings and countywide signal shop operations, including traffic signals, flashers and street lighting.
• Operations
  Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS)/Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) operations, traffic studies, residential traffic management, rights-of-way permitting and pavement preservation.
• Planning
  Data management, interagency transportation coordination and multi-modal transportation planning and safety for bicyclists, pedestrians and schools.
• Transportation/Roadway Engineering
  Provides planning, design, engineering, project management, consultant management, administration, oversight and execution of programmed CIP transportation/roadway projects. Conducts public outreach and collaboration on projects with local and state stakeholders.