The Maintenance Department consists of two divisions, Urban
and Rural, employing more than 100 employees responsible for maintaining
more than 2,000 miles of roadway
and more than 500 bridges and large culverts within the Districts jurisdiction.
Watch the Idaho Statesman's photo feature on an ACHD worker.
The Urban Division is located on Adams Street in Garden City and the Rural Division
is located on North Cloverdale Road. The Maintenance Departments responsibilities are
pothole patching, drainage facility maintenance, pavement maintenance
and repair, street sweeping, grading of alleys
and gravel roads, roadside weed abatement, winter
snow and ice control, and bridge maintenance. Please visit our
Winter Maintenance page.
Each year, both divisions combine efforts to apply chipseal
surfacing to approximately 150 miles of roadway in Ada County. Chipsealing is done
to protect the surface of a street from wear, water, and weather damage. The chipseal application is done to both old and new streets to maintain existing pavement
and delay the aging process. "I just had to take a moment and
compliment the workers that have been doing the roads (chipsealing).
They have pleasantly surprised my husband and myself by their
professionalism and politeness," said Karen Sigler. "All
workers (including the flaggers) have been quick, efficient, polite
and professional. AND...the roads look amazing. Thank you for your
consideration to us drivers."
The Maintenance Department undertakes numerous
maintenance projects related to safety issues:
We replace some bridges with large diameter reinforced concrete
pipe, widen some roads to three lanes providing for safe left turns (where right-of-way
is existing), and replace the asphalt in intersections where rutting is severe enough
to cause a safety hazard.
Periodically, the Rural Division crews assist the Boise River Flood Control with
the removal of gravel from the Boise River. A total of 67,310 cubic yards of pit
run was removed from the river at three different locations (Eagle Island, Eagle
Bridge, and Star Bridge) in 1999.
The Maintenance Department has a Weed Abatement Program, which is very productive. With
the cooperation of the Ada County Sheriff's Department inmate work release program,
each year more than 20 miles of roadway and shoulders are cleared, over 250 alley
blocks are cleaned, and over 1,500 cubic yards of weeds and debris are hauled to
the landfill. The Weed Crew teams up with Ada County Weed Control to dig out the
worst infections of noxious weeds in Ada County to prevent further spreading. This
has been a very successful program with cost savings to taxpayers and the highway
district. The Urban Division Weed Crew also joins efforts with Rural Division employees
to work diligently on site obstructions.
In addition to installing gates to prevent vandalism and replacing bridge decks
in alleys, our Urban Utility crew also performs major slope renovation to ease the
concern of rocks falling from an eroded back slope.
Both Maintenance divisions continue to repair and improve street drainage throughout
the county. In addition, our Grade Crews undertake minor rebuild projects where
the road base is rebuilt and then the street is repaved.
Maintenance continues to enhance its strong operational partnerships with other agencies
such as Boise City and Ada County through the Local Emergency Planning Committee
to coordinate mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery plans associated with
potential emergencies from floods, earthquakes, or other disasters. Each year, our
crews assist with the sand clean up out of Crane Creek after the spring run off.
ACHD maintenance employees were recognized by the Boise Fire Department in
August 2009 for their roles in responding to the Oregon Trail Fire. That fire
hit Southeast Boise in August 2008. Highway District employees helped the night
of the fire by providing water stored in ACHD trucks in case there was a water
system failure. “You were an invaluable resource, you were our backup. You were
there in the event that things went even worse than they did,” said Mitch
Caldwell, Deputy Chief of the Boise Fire Department.