Benton CountyOre.
Including engineering and permitting, the project unfolded over …
Know (and respect) your limits
The department’s Engineering/Surveying Division employs 10 full-time civil engineers, surveyors, GIS technicians, and two interns. The Road Maintenance Division’s 13 full-time employees are supplemented by seasonal and part-time workers. Together, the two groups assess, build, and maintain 460 miles of roads, 103 bridges and large culverts, 5,000 small culverts, signs, and vegetation.
Benton County Public Works started designing and building transportation infrastructure because it was difficult to raise matching funds for grants. “Over 15 years, we’ve developed that expertise so we don’t have to contract this work,” says Engineering/Survey Program Manager Laurie Starha.
However, Wheeler stresses that in-house work is limited to the small bridges that account for 30% of the department’s network.
“Our county is rural so it has a lot of small structures, which is why we do a lot of the work,” he says. “If it’s a fairly large bridge, we start going after grants and using contractors and consultants.”
In the case of the Norton Creek Bridge, only wetland delineation was handled by an outside consultant.
Next Page: From eyesore to bottomless culvert
