December 18, 2025 | From City of New Orleans
Building the Future: DPW Visits Local Students to Talk Streets and Safety
Building the Future: DPW Visits Local Students to Talk Streets and Safety
The Department of Public Works recently visited a local elementary school to speak with a kindergarten class that has been learning about how cities work as part of their current curriculum. The students are studying what makes a city run, with a special focus on streets, signs, and traffic safety, and invited DPW to help them understand what goes into building and maintaining public infrastructure.
Deputy Director Shannon Oldfield-Blanks joined the class and shared information about how streets are constructed, why repairs are sometimes necessary, and how DPW crews work safely in active environments. The students were particularly interested in the safety gear used in the field, including hard hats and reflective vests, and asked thoughtful questions about what workers do to stay protected while completing repairs.
As part of their lesson, the students created a live model of a small city using classroom materials and displayed photographs they had taken of real street signs in their own neighborhoods. Their work helped them recognize how many different elements such as signs, signals, crosswalks, drainage, and other features make up a functioning roadway system.
As the class explored how cities function, the students were especially curious about the real-world systems that support everyday life. They asked how broken street signs get fixed, what happens to the pipes located beneath the roadway, and why those pipes are so important to drainage and utilities. They were also interested in how streets and sidewalks are repaired and what causes damage in the first place. Their questions reflected an impressive level of observation and connection-making for such young learners, particularly as they compared what they saw in their neighborhood photographs to what they imagined in their model city.
One of the most memorable moments centered on discovering that there is far more beneath the surface of city streets than meets the eye. Students were surprised to learn that New Orleans has a network of pipes under the roadway that move stormwater, support drainage, and help provide essential services. This sparked a lively conversation about how workers locate, protect, and access those underground systems during construction, and why coordinating that work is such an important part of keeping the city functioning smoothly.
For DPW, opportunities like this highlight the importance of engaging residents of all ages in understanding how their city works. While most public interactions happen at community meetings or project sites, connecting with young learners offers a chance to introduce the ideas of problem-solving, engineering, and public service early in life in a way that is hands-on, relatable, and fun.
The classroom visit reflected the students’ natural curiosity and excitement about how cities are built and how people work together to make them safe and functional. It also provided an opportunity to reinforce that behind every street and sign is a process that involves planning, safety, teamwork, and technical expertise.
DPW appreciates the invitation from the school and the warm welcome from its teachers and students. Seeing children analyze real streets in their neighborhoods and apply what they learned to create their own miniature city is a reminder that public service can inspire the next generation of designers, builders, and problem-solvers, even before they can spell the word "infrastructure."