Our crews will be focusing on storm clean up for a few days. This includes clearing limbs and debris from the roads, removing hazard trees. Plows will be out working on clearing the rest of the roads that still need it.
You can help by calling our Maintenance Operations office at 360-786-5495 to report blocking or leaning trees and branches, or roads that still need clearing.
Be Safe
Please do not attempt to clear trees yourself. Our crews work with the power companies to safely remove the trees while making sure that the powerlines are de-energized. A line on the ground is not always a dead line.
For more information and contact numbers for storm help visit our Weather & Emergency Info page .
OK, here goes...
Monday, the crew is off in honor of Dr Martin Luther King's birthday. All county offices are closed.
The rest of the week:
The Belt-loading gang is down in the Michigan Hill area (SW part of the county).
The SW area is also getting treated to a trim and shave by the slope mowers and crews responding to service requests for vegetation removal. This is usually brush and tree limbs that cause sight distance obstruction, or start to encroach into the travel area of the roadway. It also could be brush that blocks water drainage into ditches. Most often these jobs are in response to calls from citizens or school bus drivers, and sometimes from law enforcement or other county employees.
If you see tree limbs or vegetation that could cause a hazard you can report it to us by calling 360-786-5495 during business hours, or buy using our web reporting form. You can also use this form for reporting any other hazards that you may see such as potholes, vandalized or missing traffic signs, road-killed deer that obstruct traffic.
The sweepers and vactors are working in the NPDES areas, and there are crews working at both the Rainier Drop box and Tilley Campus.
HOWEVER.... If it SNOWS... all bets are off. Depending upon the severity of the weather, sanders and plows will be dispatched based on our road priority system. That information is available at our website
Guess what we are doing this week? Oh, that's right, I'm supposed to be telling YOU. Okay.. here we go.
In those NPDES (you remember what that means, right?) areas, the crews are cleaning catch-basins and culverts using the vactor truck. The sweepers are also working in those areas. And, sorry, no, they cannot sweep and vacuum your house when they are done. :(
If you live or travel around Rich Road, you will no doubt see the slope mowers at work. They are mowing in that area this week. Please use caution and follow flagger directions when passing.
We have some crews working in the Southwest doing some Citizen Requests for tree limbing and brush removal, and there is some work going on at the Rainer Transfer Station Drop Box site.
Up in the Northeast and Fish Trap Loop area, the crews are belt loading.
Belt loading involves a long string of equipment, including a grader, a mobile belt-loader, several dump-trucks, a mobile broom, traffic control vehicles, and flaggers on foot. The grader pulls material out of the ditch onto the road, the belt-loader scoops it up onto its conveyor and into the box of a dump-truck that is travelling in reverse.(From experience, I can tell you that it is not easy to stay under that chute while driving backward in a straight line and ESPECIALLY going around a corner) When the truck is full, the driver pulls out of line and is replaced by the next truck, and so on. This continues until the entire section of ditch is cleaned. The mobile broom follows the line of trucks cleaning up any remaining dirt on the road. The flaggers make sure that the way is clear for both you and the trucks.
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Belt Loader
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That should cover it for this week.
