Kevin Volbrecht Battles Against Rising Tides in West Palm Beach

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In a city where the ocean’s beauty is matched only by its threat, Kevin Volbrecht stands as West Palm Beach’s shield against the rising tides. As the city’s director of engineering services, Volbrecht brings a wealth of experience to a role that demands nothing less than excellence in the face of climate change.

When Volbrecht joined the City of West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2016, he secured some early wins. For instance, even though the work fell outside his purview, Volbrecht personally handled the project management of two fire stations that were in dire need of rejuvenation.

“I had a lot of building in my background and was in a position where it just made the most sense for me to handle it,” Volbrecht explains. “I got to build two LEED-certified fire stations right off the bat. It was a great way to start this role, even though that wasn’t exactly my job.”

From Cable Cars to Coastal Challenges

Volbrecht’s reference to his building experience is a masterpiece of understatement. His career reads like a highlight reel of engineering marvels: from revitalizing San Francisco’s iconic cable cars to spearheading a $6 billion, 23-mile extension of the Washington, DC, metro system. These projects, with their multimillion-dollar budgets and complex logistics, have prepared Volbrecht for the unique challenges of West Palm Beach.

“We have more rain in Florida than you can possibly imagine, and the sea levels continue to rise. It’s a very challenging problem to try to address, and it seems like the problem will continue to get more challenging.”

Kevin Volbrecht

These milestones, along with countless others, might make West Palm Beach’s $275 million capital improvement program seem like just another day at the office for the engineering leader. However, Volbrecht faces some very difficult challenges when it comes to making the streets of West Palm Beach safe, easily navigable, and ready for the future. His greatest opponent? Mother Nature.

“One of the biggest challenges we have in this community is not uncommon for cities along the East or West Coast,” Volbrecht says. “We have more rain in Florida than you can possibly imagine, and the sea levels continue to rise. It’s a very challenging problem to try to address, and it seems like the problem will continue to get more challenging.”

Battling the Rising Tides

As building in West Palm Beach has progressed over the decades, less and less ground has been able to absorb groundwater. Additionally, the city’s drainage wasn’t engineered for the present levels of precipitation runoff and the increase in tidal flows due to the decrease in permeable surfaces and the rising sea levels. As a result, the city is implementing an extensive tidal valve program that will mitigate tidal backflow in most of its eventual 34 outlets to the nearby Lake Worth Lagoon.

The tidal valve program, while only a third complete, has already proven its worth. Plus, those aforementioned outlets have proven successful in their duties. However, Volbrecht is quick to point out that this program is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.

Collaborative Solutions for a Shared Problem

“We have to ask much bigger questions. Do we need to raise the elevation on the roads? We have people tearing down houses and rebuilding new ones at higher levels. We don’t know how much global warming and sea levels are going to change in the future, but we know it’s going to continue to create issues that are vast and expensive. That’s the reality,” Volbrecht says.

As such, Volbrecht says the fact that it’s not just a West Palm Beach problem is a small blessing. He can interact with other city leaders across the country and learn how they’re tackling the issues he sees daily.

“You just try to build people around you who are incredibly capable at doing what they do. When the crisis hits, you have support and the ability to move mountains.”

Kevin Volbrecht

And in an unexpected twist, the political controversy surrounding global warming takes a backseat in this Florida community. Why? As Volbrecht puts it: “Our residents have streets flooding. They want to know what we’re doing about it and how quickly we can find a solution.”

That doesn’t mean that action happens overnight, though. The city must interface with the Environmental Protection Agency and the South Florida Water Management District to ensure that drainage to the Lake Worth Lagoon isn’t negatively impacting other parts of the environment. Additionally, Volbrecht and his team find themselves regularly speaking with the US Army Corp of Engineers throughout the process.

“It can be a little challenging trying to make things happen as fast as you’d like with so many regulatory requirements,” the director explains. “But we still have to find a way.”

Building Trust and Moving Mountains

Creating optimal work environments and relationships is a cornerstone of Volbrecht’s practice. The director believes in earning people’s trust and cooperation. In building that trust, Volbrecht says admitting when he doesn’t know something is critical.

Garnering the trust and involvement of more technically knowledgeable people is crucial. He had no experience in train testing when he was building a massive metro extension. He’d never built a tunnel before. But the project was still completed at such a rapid clip that it earned him a bonus.

“You just try to build people around you who are incredibly capable at doing what they do,” Volbrecht says. “When the crisis hits, you have support and the ability to move mountains.”

Or, in this case, blow a hole through them.

The City of West Palm Beach is in very capable hands.

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