Blades
The rural grader crews consist of 12 blade operators in three different locations: Calhan has five operators; Peyton has three; Ellicott has two; and Truckton has two. The equipment they use is five Caterpillar graders and eight Volvo or Champion machines. Twelve of these machines and operators are responsible for approximately 65 miles of gravel and 30 miles of pavement each. Every operator is responsible for the maintenance of their area including keeping the roads smooth, clearing hazards, removing snow, and repair of damage due to adverse weather. The crews maintain approximately 1,200 miles of roadway.
During the summer months the same operators perform various jobs in addition to routine maintenance of assigned areas. They perform dust control, drainage preparation and road rebuild before a road is to be graveled, and mowing. The crews also respond to hundreds of service requests each year including muddy roads, dust, flooding, snow, trash removal, weeds, fires and accidents. Other responsibilities include operating rollers, water trucks, front-end loaders, dump trucks, snow blowers, and performing as flaggers for construction jobs.
Asphalt and Sweeper Crew
There are 17 members of the patch crew, and three members of the sweeper crew. The asphalt crew and street sweepers are responsible for maintaining all 2,086 lane miles of rural and urban asphalt roads in unincorporated El Paso County.
The sweepers do regular maintenance, support, and seasonal maintenance consisting of sweeping after a snow or rain event, and fall leaf clean up. In a typical year, more than 10,700 lane miles of road is swept by this crew. They often close about 350 service requests each year.
The asphalt crew is responsible for pothole repair, digouts, overlay and chip seal preparation and crack sealing. In a typical year they use 56,000 pounds of crack seal material and 3,000 tons of asphalt to maintain County roads. This crew closes about 1,000 service requests each year.
In addition to their regular duties, each crew member is assigned to a snow plow area for snow and ice control.
Drainage (Urban and Rural)
There are 19 members of the Urban Construction and Urban Drainage crews. They are comprised of one foreman, two drainage team leaders, one construction team leader, and 15 maintenance workers.
The drainage crews are responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and repair of all County-owned urban drainage ways that include detention ponds, drainage channels, right-of-way ditches, curb and gutter, and pipe structures. These two crews work on an average of 10 service requests per week each year, as well as performing normal maintenance assignments. Detention ponds and channels are set up to be checked out and cleaned when needed each year.
The construction crew is responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and repair of all County bridges and guardrail. This crew is assigned the task of inspecting hundreds of guardrail sections each year and keeping them in good working order, along with emergency repairs due to accidents. State and County inspectors look at all County-owned bridges over a two-year cycle and make lists of repairs needed for each bridge. This maintenance includes deck replacements, sand blast and painting, abutment repairs, wing wall repairs, and debris removal under each structure.
The rural drainage crew is responsible for the repair and upkeep of the open drainage and the structures that are in the County right-of-way. This group is comprised of two crews of six employees, two tandem dump trucks, a backhoe, a Badger grade-all, and a skid loader.
The crews install new pipes as needed before roads are to be graveled, using three types of pipes: CMP corrugated metal, HDPE plastic pipe for areas that are high acid or where water drainage may require a smooth-lined pipe or for higher volume flows, and RCP concrete pipe for areas where heavy trucks may be hauling or for an area with less cover than what other pipes require.
These employees work throughout the County installing pipes at locations that have an area where water may be crossing the roadway as well as pipe replacements resulting from constant calls for service due to the aging structures that have deteriorated over the years for roads built in the 1940s. These crews also clean plugged cross pipes that get filled with tumble weeds and silt sand, and help with new construction.
In addition to responding to hundreds of service requests every year including floods, washed out roads and damaged pipes, they also assist with snow and ice control during the winter.
Truck Crew
The truck crew is responsible for gravling all County roads. At any given time, depending on the job, they can haul up to two thousand tons of material a day. They also haul water that is needed to help hold the roads together in order to prevent shoulder drop off, and haul hot oil for some of the large patching areas. The truck crews clear about 2,000 lane miles of snow during the winter months...a continuous effort during some storms.
General Maintenance
The maintenance crew is responsible for many different types of jobs including mowing the County right-of-way, trimming and removing trees, repairing and replacing snow fence, picking up adopt-a-road trash bags, dead animal removal, and snow removal. They also support all the other crews when needed.
The crew currently has five people assigned to it. These employees process an average of 725 service request per year, cut approximately 3,000 miles of County right-of-way each summer, and work with communities who develop community fire protection plans. In the Black Forest area, for example, they cut and trimmed over 10 miles of roads to help established better fire evacuation routes.