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Brown County Browser: Road maintenance work

The County Highway Department will soon begin spring and summer maintenance operations. County forces will be patching, sealing and graveling county highways as soon as weather permits. They will also be mowing and spraying county right of ways. The County informs the public before spraying weeds with a notice in the local newspapers. If a landowner requests their ditch not be sprayed it is the landowner’s responsibility to maintain weed control on that section of road ditch.

Maintenance work sometimes requires temporary lane closures or short-term complete road closures. Advance warning signs are erected to warn the traveling public of the maintenance work ahead. Sometimes flagmen are needed to stop traffic for a short time to allow oncoming traffic to pass. It is very important to stay alert and watch for these warning signs. When you see advance warning signs, slow down and be prepared to stop. It is important to slow down, especially if there is a reduced speed limit sign displayed for the safety of everyone involved, especially the maintenance worker. We have had a number of incidents where a distracted driver almost ran over a flagman trying to stop a vehicle.

Brown County maintains 346 miles of highway and 145 bridges. Fifty-five miles of highway have a gravel surface and 291 miles have a bituminous paved surface. The County hires contractors to construct a number of projects every year.

This year the County plans to rehabilitate 29 miles of paved roadway using the cold inplace recycle and overlay process on five projects. The County also plans to add wider shoulders, flatten slopes and modify a horizontal curve to improve the safety of 6.5 miles of highway on two projects. In addition, one county bridge and one township bridge are planned for replacement.

The road projects will be posted “Closed Local Traffic Only.” This means that if you live on the road or farm the land along the road that is in a project you can use the road except when the Contractor is working in that section and has it blocked. No through traffic should be using a road posted “Local Traffic Only.”

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