Paving the way

The Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) passed two resolutions during their February 16 meeting that adopted policies proposed by Kandis Fritz, Carbon County Road and Bridge Coordinator. Both policies seek to help the department in managing the nearly 1,000 miles of county roads.

Weight Just a Minute

The resolution that seemed to elicit the most discussion was 2021-08, which adopted rules and regulations for sizes, weight and permits on Carbon County roads. Fritz informed both the commissioners and the public that while there had always been weight restrictions on county roads they hadn’t always been enforced.

She added that, in the past, former coordinator Bill Nation had contacted Wyoming Highway Patrol to bring out portable scales to determine the weight of some of the heavy trucks going up and down the dirt roads.

“We have 51 bridges in Carbon County that we have to look at protecting. We have 452 cattle guards in Carbon County, not all of those are on concrete blocks. So someone might say ‘I want to be able to go on this road and take my oversized weight limit down this’. You cannot. It will not hold up to that road,” said Fritz. “The biggest thing is these people need to call the office and see if they can even travel that road before traveling. That’s what this policy entails.”

As discussion continued, Commissioner John Espy voiced his support for the policy, stating that many oversize vehicles had skirted the size and weight policies by transporting some oversize loads in one piece rather than two or three.

The policy, which is 46 pages in length and can be found at http://www.carbonwy.com/958/Road-and-Bridge, provides multiple tables and a fee schedule for transporting oversize loads on the roads along with transport procedures. Permits to move oversize loads, additionally, must go before the BOCCC who will either approve or deny the permit prior to transportation.

Managing Roads

Resolution 2021-07 adopted the Carbon County Road and Bridge Management Policy, which Fritz told the commissioners touched on every aspect of the department. That policy, which can be found at the same address as the policy adopted under Resolution 2021-08, is 42 pages in length.

The opening pages of the document list the roads maintained by the county, totaling 945 miles. It also lists whether those roads are maintained either year round or seasonally, with 491 miles maintained during the winter.

The policy also puts the various roads into four different categories. Category One is considered high priority and includes roads that are either paved or surfaced with quality gravel. The lowest category is Category Four, which is listed as “no priority” and includes roads that are unimproved two tracks and are only considered a county road because they are on a county easement.

Additionally, the policy defines primary, secondary, residential or local, and primitive or two-track roads along with speed limits for each. 

Primary roads, in the policy, are defined as “generally through roads carrying traffic to and from major areas of population with minimal interference and are normally high-speed roads containing all signage and road markings to accommodate higher volumes of traffic” and have a speed limit of 65 miles per hour.

Secondary roads, meanwhile, are defined as “collectors of traffic from residential, industrial, agricultural, and recreational areas to the primary road system. Secondary roads provide a link between local roads and arterial roads. Secondary roads should be designed so that they do not disrupt the activities and land uses they serve. Secondary roads should provide for relatively high overall travel speeds” and have a speed limit of 60 miles per hour.

Residential or local roads provide access to primary or secondary roads and have a speed limit of 40 miles per hour and the primitive or unimproved two tracks have a speed limit of 30 miles per hour.

Both resolutions adopting the two policies were approved unanimously.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on March 2 at the Carbon County Courthouse in Rawlins.