This June, the SFPUC said farewell to a vital asset as we wished Project Manager Kirit Bavishi, a happy and well-deserved retirement after 30 plus years of public service working with the City and County of San Francisco. Although a bittersweet goodbye, Bavishi reminds us all that the end of his role at the SFPUC means opening the door of opportunity for others to fill his spot.

After jump starting his career with the Department of Public Works, it was not long before the opportunity knocked on the door for him to join the SFPUC, which at the time the agency was still both the SFPUC and MUNI. His first City projects included engineering for MUNI, work on Hetch Hetchy Water System, and local water and wastewater projects. When the time came for the SFPUC and MUNI to part ways, he stuck with MUNI and was fortunate to work on such important projects as the MUNI Metro Turnaround Tunnel project, earning him a valuable ‘Recognition Award’ from the Board of Supervisors. He’s proud to say his work helped in building the tracks from AT&T park to CalTrain station, which allows us all to enjoy the beauty of SoMa and SF Giants ball games today.

After joining the SFPUC, he credits his engineering experiences here as helping him develop professionally into a better engineer. Bavishi’s early design work at the SFPUC has helped quality improvements of reservoirs, pipelines, and other facilities around the Bay Area, ultimately providing the experience he needed to help me to move a notch up into Project Management. This final role included work on a variety of both water and wastewater projects at the SFPUC. When asked to reflect on memorable projects, Bavishi noted the work that stands out as most memorable includes a superfund project ‘Baylands Clean-Up’ which saved the SFPUC millions of dollars and a big sigh of relief against regulatory agencies, working on the ‘once in a life time’ opportunity known as the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) – a huge cost savings project which found him winning the O’Shaughnessy Award, and ultimately being assigned to the Sewer System Improvement Program (SSIP) when the SFPUC launched these citywide wastewater upgrades.

“In my experience, the real success was due to a positive approach of equal treatment,” Bavishi shares. “Treating others how you want to be treated, as well as being honest, implementing a less talk-do work code, supporting the live & let live principle, stressing teamwork and partnership, and most importantly to ‘keep smiling’ – I mean it!”

Moving forward, Bavishi plans to continue volunteering for various organizations and extending help to those in need, playing music, practicing religion in practical sense, travelling, some gardening, and continuing to meditate for a peaceful life.