1) U. S. Forest Service Roads - The five National Forests in Siskiyou County provide roads for a variety or reasons and activities. Access is provided to harvest timber, provide recreational opportunities, fire protection and forest management activities.

2) State of California - The California Department of Transportation is responsible for the operation and maintenance of eight state and interstate routes maintaining 320 miles of highways in the county.

3) Siskiyou County - Publicly maintained roads not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, State of California or incorporated cities are the maintenance responsibility of the County of Siskiyou.

4) Private Roads - Many roads are created by developers who choose to keep the roads within their subdivision as private roads to avoid the cost of constructing the roads to the County's standards and offering the roads for dedication to the County. This results in lower costs to purchase property and consequently lower property taxes, but these costs savings are offset by the property owner being responsible for the cost of maintaining the roads.

County Maintained Road System

The Public Works Department's Road Division is responsible for providing safe and driveable public roadways in the unincorporated areas of the county.

The primary function of the Road Division is the operation, maintenance and improvement of the county's roads and bridges, which currently includes 1,361 miles of roadways and 175 bridges.

Supporting activities are administration, financial, planning, engineering, surveying, inspection, and traffic operations. These support activities are performed by personnel working in the Public Works Department's main office located in Yreka.

Maintenance functions are provided through the Central Shop located in Yreka, six regional maintenance districts and three regional sub-districts.

The county road budget receives approximately $9 million (from all sources) per year. This amount provides for resurfacing, rehabilitation, new construction, snow removal, ice control and routine maintenance. Funding available for road purposes is always less than the work that needs to be accomplished; therefore, work is prioritized in order to insure optimum use of available funds.

The Department's highest priority is to provide needed maintenance to protect the investment in existing roads and bridges and to provide for improvements to the safety, capacity and serviceability of the roads.

Routine maintenance includes pothole patching and crack filling of asphalt pavements, grading and dust control of unpaved roads, shoulder maintenance, guardrail repair and replacement, snowplowing of mountain roads, traffic sign maintenance and replacement, pavement striping, bridge inspection and repair, and cleaning and maintenance of drainage structures, such as culverts, catch basins, ditches, and gutters.

Resurfacing and rehabilitation of asphalt pavements include asphalt overlays and pavement chip seals.

State law dictates that County road funds may not be expended on roads which have not been accepted into the County Maintained Road System

Of the 1,361 miles of roads in the maintained system, approximately 470 miles of roads are unpaved. Almost all of the unpaved roads were accepted into the road system more than thirty (30) years ago and most were brought into the road system when the system was created by state legislation in 1948.

Most of the unpaved roads in the County Road System carry a low volume of traffic. Limited funding prevents the County from paving these roads.

There are many additional miles or roads in the County which are being used by the public which are not in the maintained road system. As stated above, the County may not expend funds to maintain or improve these roads.

Siskiyou County Winter Storm Info./Snow Removal

Funding

Funds for road maintenance and construction are derived from a portion of the federal reserve, Senate Bill 42 and from taxes collected on the sale of fuel.

No property taxes or other county general funds are used for the maintenance and improvements of county roads and bridges.

Generally speaking, the County's share of the highway user's tax is apportioned by population and maintained road mileage. Since Siskiyou County is a large but sparsely populated county, the revenue for road maintenance is low compared to the more densely populated areas.

Most improvement work is funded by various federal and state grant programs.

Given the inflated costs and the reduction in revenues, the County's ability to maintain the road system has been severely limited and unless a new revenue source is created maintenance efforts will have to be further reduced in the future.

Acceptance of Roads Into The Maintained System

The  County receives many requests to accept additional unpaved roads into the maintained system. Due to funding limitations and the difficulty in maintaining the roads currently in the system, the County must deny most of these requests.

The criteria for acceptance requires that appropriate right-of-way exists or be obtained and that the road be constructed and paved to county standards at no cost to the County. Specific construction requirements vary depending upon the location, classification, and traffic volume of the road involved.

Acceptance requires approval by the Board of Supervisors and must be based on proven benefit to the public.

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Contact Siskiyou County Department of Public Works
1312 Fairlane Road, Yreka, California 96097
Telephone: (530) 842-8250, Fax Number: (530) 842-8288