The Road Maintenance Department is responsible for all Force Account projects (construction work performed by County Engineer Crews), ice and snow control, roadway signing and stripping, mowing and other general/seasonal maintenance of County roads and bridges. This department also works closely with the Townships on the various maintenance needs on their road systems.

Office support personnel at the Road Maintenance facility in Maumee, Ohio perform payroll, purchase requisitions, cost accounting and word processing for the Department.

Road Maintenance has several important safety functions which include annual inspection reviews of roadways, day signs, night signs and traffic signals along with a daily road and sign patrol.

Most of the personnel are required to have Commercial Drivers Licenses (C.D.L.) for winter ice and snow control. All drivers must maintain a clean driving record both professionally and personally to hold these positions.

Overall operations are continually being reviewed and changed every year to provide a cost effective level of service. Computers and software provide job cost accounting to be sure costs are comparative to the private sector. The software is being upgraded in 2006.

The Department prepares an annual report summarizing the overall operational cost and the cost of all force account projects.

This Department has three sections which use a common pool of operators, laborers and equipment to perform daily maintenance and operations.

Road Maintenance Section
Some of the work is year round such as berm repair, pavement patching, washouts, sewer cleaning, forestry, litter pickup and guard rail repair. Seasonal work includes sewer construction, berming, mowing, ice and snow control, bridge deck sealing and repair, and pavement repair.

Some operations such as weed control spraying, crack sealing, stump removal, bridge rehabilitation and pavement sweeping are now completely done by outside contractors. Other operations such as mowing, storm sewer construction, berm construction, striping and signal repair are performed by both private contract and County crews.

Certain other operations such as ice and snow control, pot hole repair, guardrail repair, berm maintenance, signing maintenance and forestry are performed entirely by County crews at this time.

Traffic Section
Year round work is sign fabrication and maintenance of signs and signals. Seasonal work includes detour signing, pavement stripping and school, railroad and intersection painting.

Garage Section
While this section is not readily apparent to the general public, it is important that the extensive fleet of County Engineer equipment be in a constant state of readiness for normal or call out operations. The original purchase price of the rolling stock including auxiliary accessories, trailing equipment and small construction equipment is over $4.3 million dollars.

As with the Road Maintenance crews, some of the work is performed by the private sector, some is entirely by county personnel and some operations are performed by both. Again computers and software provide good cost accounting and service records by vehicle.

In addition to equipment purchases and a preventative maintenance program, this section is responsible to maintain the Road Maintenance Department’s buildings and grounds. Most of equipment maintenance is performed by four mechanics who are capable of transmission and diesel engine repair. The other workers at the garage are assigned from the personnel pool along with a dispatcher and watchman.