Public Works is working for you and everyone who lives in Josephine County or travels through - by providing the roads, public facilities, and services that help make travel in Josephine County safe, convenient, and enjoyable. Our primary job is to assure your roads, bridges, traffic signs, and rights-of-way are designed, built, and maintained to provide you with the best-possible, safest transpo
rtation system. We work so you can travel safely and conveniently to work, school, and play, and do everything else you do in Josephine County without worrying about the roads that take you to your destinations. Josephine County employs just over 50 skilled hard-working men and women in the Public Works Division. Others work as engineers, accountants, fleet mechanics, and customer service representatives in our office. Working from our headquarters in Grants Pass, we perform regular maintenance and emergency repairs on approximately 575 miles of County roads; about 200 bridges and structures; approximately 13,000 road culverts; more than 8,600 sign installations; and hundreds of miles of rights-of-way. We also have the following responsibilities:
v Routine road maintenance includes repairs to the road surface like sealing cracks and filling holes caused by weather and heavy use. It means checking and repairing bridges to assure they're safe and meet the most stringent standards. v We mark pavement for traffic control and install traffic signs to advise motorists. We control vegetation along roads so drivers have safe visibility. We clean and maintain drainage ditches to carry away storm water and reduce the damages of water accumulating on the pavement. v We also haul and stockpile the rock for much of our roadwork. The County has a few shale pits and hard-rock quarries, and numerous gravel stockpile sites. These sites provide the material for routine maintenance on your roads and special construction projects. v During emergencies such as floods, landslides, or icy road conditions, we remove hazards that could threaten public safety along county roads. v Public Works' employees design and construct many improvements to serve the growing population of the County. Staff engineers design and oversee projects (such as roads, bike lanes, bridges, and storm drains) that are contracted with private construction companies. v We review all plans for new construction which might impact the County's road system and help owners and developers establish road access and public facilities necessary when lands are divided and new homes and businesses are built. v Maintenance and repair of the County vehicle fleet is performed by Public Works, in addition to its own specialized fleet of vehicles and heavy equipment. We also manage the County's North Valley Industrial Park and its solid waste programs. We are very interested in hearing from you. Please feel free to call us, come visit with us, or email us. We welcome the opportunity for your input on our programs and services.
