Technical Tours supplement the traditional classroom-lecture format and give you a first-hand view of best practices. Please note that some tour sizes are limited. Registrations are confirmed on a first-come/first-served basis. Tours with insufficient attendance may be cancelled. Refunds will be given for any cancelled tour. Click here to register online.

Wednesday, September 12, 1:00 p.m. - $25
Come and tour one of San Antonio’s award-winning infrastructure projects that saved the City well over its total construction cost, of approximately $110 million, in flood damage just months after it went into operation. The San Antonio River Tunnel is a flood diversion tunnel that is approximately 3.2 miles long and 150 feet deep with precast concrete segmented liners of 24 feet, 4 inches. The tunnel also encompasses a water feature, park-like facilities, betterments, channelization, and tunnel recirculation to assist in flood control. In fact, this may be the only tunnel that can reverse the direction of the water flow! During the tour participants will learn about the massive construction effort to bring the project to fruition, tunnel operation, and how the structure is maintained. In 1998 the City was awarded the Texas Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award by the Texas section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Additionally, visitors from as far as Japan have come to San Antonio to visit the tunnel in hopes of duplicating the facility for their municipality.

Wednesday, September 12, 1:00 p.m. - $25
While beer is no longer brewed at this facility, you can still grab a cold one! See redevelopment at its finest. Rio Perla Properties, L.P. has redeveloped the Pearl Brewery site, a San Antonio landmark, into an impressive mixed-use development. Participants will get an in-depth overview of one of San Antonio’s premier private/public partnerships and will be able to tour the development site, which incorporates historic preservation, Smart Growth, green building technology, and many other design elements that will make this area a livable community.

Wednesday, September 12, 1:00 p.m. - $25
Ever wonder if city and county services could be consolidated? Consolidation of city/county services is often considered when exploring means of maximizing community resources, and San Antonio will soon be embarking in such an initiative when the City of San Antonio and the County of Bexar bring together the offices of Emergency Management into a new 35,000-square-foot joint use facility. This facility will house City, County, regional, state and federal departments and personnel for the purpose of gathering, evaluating and distributing critical information, and implementing responsive actions in the event of a natural or man-made emergency or disaster. Come and tour this state-of-the-art facility and learn how San Antonio and Bexar County collaborated to make this $24.5-million joint project a reality.

A new era of innovation was born in the summer of 2002 in San Antonio when the United States Air Force conveyed the entire Brooks Air Force Base property to the Brooks Development Authority (BDA) creating the nation’s first-and-only City-Base. Today, Brooks City-Base stands as San Antonio’s premier center for bioscience, academic, environmental and technical research. Participants will be able to tour this 1,246-acre site which includes over two million square feet of lab space, office space, light industrial facilities and recreation/fitness areas and see how effective partnerships produce first-rate results.