Road Maintenance

The Road Maintenance Division is comprised of 23 staff positions. The staffing consists of three crews assigned to respective areas & a support crew.

Geographically, Santa Fe County encompasses an area of approximately 2,000 square miles. The development in the County is primarily rural in character with areas of concentrated development. Within the boundaries of the County, there are approximately 2,900 road miles including state highways, city streets, private roads and county roads. Of the total mileage, Santa Fe County has maintenance responsibilities for approximately 586 miles.

To efficiently utilize the available resources, the maintenance responsibilities are apportioned into three maintenance districts with a newley formed support crew consisting of four and giving support to these Districts as needed. The staff in each district provides for all aspects of maintenance including grading, roadside mowing, drainage structures, pothole repair and snow removal.

The County road inventory (fiscal year 2003) is summarized by surface type as follows:

	Maintenance District I (North) Commission Dist I	Maintenance District II (Central) Commission Dist II, III, IV, & V	Maintenance District III (South) Commission Dist V
Asphalt Paved	48.44	86.64	10.52
Chip Seal	11.71	7.85	0
Base Course	15.49	84.72	11.56
Cold Millings	0	18.61	0
Dirt	52.15	91.29	142.37
Gravel	0	1.38	50
Stabilized Dirt	0	3.10	0
Total Road Miles	127.79 miles	293.68 miles	164.95 miles
Staffing	5	8	5

Approximately 430 miles of road require periodic grading. Grading schedules call for periodic grading of every road with the higher volume roads on a more frequent basis. Typically, most rain fall events cause some damage to roads or arroyo crossings. On these occasions, the grading schedule is delayed to accommodate the repairs.

Snow removal operations are handled by two 4 teams consisting of 17 staff members operating in 8hr shifts with a second shift ready to mobilize. Along with snow removal operations lasting as long as necessary. The snow removal begins with the priority one roads, the high volume traffic roads, then filters down to priority two and local roads.

Several years ago, the Board of County Commissioners established the Road Advisory Committee. The Committee is comprised of 15 community volunteers, appointed by the Commission, who represent respective areas of the County regarding road issues. The committee meets on a once per month basis and advises staff on road conditions or problems in their respective areas. Additionally, the committee prepares an annual Road Improvement Priority Program which lists the County's priority projects. The program is provided to the legislative delegation and becomes the basis for most of the projects funded by the legislature.