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As director of engineering for the city of
Garland, Texas – sandwiched in between
Richardson and Mesquite as part of the
sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex –
Polocek oversees a department whose tasks
include design and construction of major
infrastructure initiatives, formulation of
standard practices for public works
improvement , revi ew of proposed
development plans, maintenance of city
records for public works construction and
administrationof approvedpolicies.
It's also the conduit for review/inspection
of public works projects and the city's right
of way, while managing both the National
Flood Insurance Program and local flood
damage prevention efforts.
Every once in a while, though, Polocek does
manage to sit down and assess where it all
stands.
“Things are on the upswing, which tends to
cause problems with infrastructure, but it's
not a terrible problem to have. For the most
part, our infrastructure is fairly efficient,” he
said. “Some of our most difficult-to-
develop areas have begun to draw some
interest, too, so it'll keep us all busy for the
next several years.”
Indeed, Polocek said, the clamor for
development of single- and multi-family
residential units and accompanying retail
parcels has finally spread to the final 10
percent of available territory in a city that's
already been built out to about 90 percent
of capacity over the last fewgenerations.
Population stood at a mere 2,223 at federal
census time in 1940, but three straight
decades of triple-digit growth brought it to
81,437 by 1970 – and the 100,000
threshold was easily crossed by 1980, when
the count came in at 138,857. A 30.1-
percent skip by 1990 and another 19.4-
percent spike through 2000 rocketed the
total as high as 215,768, before things
finally settled down to just a moderate 5.1-
percent rise through 2010's count of
226,876.
The estimated population to start of 2014
3 | BusinessWorld | August-September 2014