Road Maintenance

Road Maintenance Operations include the following activities:

• patching and sealing paved roads
• maintaining and repairing bridges, guardrails and culverts
• road grading, sweeping
• installing, repairing and replacing signs, pavement markings and striping
• removal of roadside hazards (trees, rock outcroppings, etc.)
• winter maintenance (snow plowing, sanding, anti-icing)
• vegetation control

Which Roads Get Maintained?

The roads in Deschutes County are maintained with funds from state motor vehicle revenue (gas tax, vehicle registration, and truck tax) and federal forest receipts from timber sales in the Deschutes National Forest. These funds are dedicated for expenditure on roads and restricted by state law to use only on those roads that have been established by the Board of County Commissioners as "County Roads." The Road Department maintains over 830 miles of County Roads in Deschutes County. There are more than 600 additional miles of roads in rural Deschutes County that are dedicated to the public (the general public has the right to drive on them) but are not maintained by any government jurisdiction. These roads, known as "local access roads," are the maintenance responsibility of the abutting property owners. Deschutes County's rapid growth has resulted in a dramatic increase in traffic on local access roads, creating a large maintenance problem for the property owners. Unfortunately, the County's limited resources do not provide adequate funding to improve or maintain these local access roads. Property owners have several options available to maintain or improve their local access road:

• Informally collect money from the area residents and hire a contractor to perform road maintenance
• Form a Special Road District to tax area residents for road maintenance. Please refer to the Special Road District Guidebook and Workshop paper for more information.

Winter Activities -

During a County-wide snowstorm, there is in excess of 1,500 lane miles to be cleared of snow in order to maintain traffic. Fortunately, not all storms are County-wide and vary as to locations and intensity. The County has established a list of specific routes to be plowed/sanded in priority order in the Snow and Ice Plan. It is the goal of Deschutes County, within available resources, to respond in a reasonable manner to snowy and icy County roads to allow vehicle travel by motorists. During these conditions motorists must exercise due care in the operation of a motor vehicle. It is not the purpose of this plan to assure the safe operation of vehicles upon County roads. For more information please view the Snow & Ice Frequently Asked Questions. >here<

Vegetation Trimming Guidelines -

Part of the chip seal process includes removing tree limbs and encroaching vegetation that will interfere with the chip seal and road maintenance equipment. Please see the attached guidelines and additional information about vegetation maintenance.