Agency: Transportation

Line Item: Operations/Maintenance Management

Function

One of the most important functions of the Department of Transportation is maintenance of State highways. This is the second largest single outlay of the total highway dollar. During FY 2011, the Maintenance Division will be engaged in maintaining nearly 17,000 lane miles of hard surface roadway. Good maintenance is important to the safety and convenience of the public and protects the investment of the citizens of Utah in their highway network.

Statutory Authority

The Maintenance Management Division of the Utah Department of Transportation is governed by the Title 72-6 UCA.

Intent Language

There is appropriated to the Department of Transportation from the Transportation Fund, not otherwise appropriated, a sum sufficient, but not more than the surplus of the Transportation Fund, to be used by the Department for the construction, rehabilitation and preservation of State highways in Utah. It is the intent of the Legislature that the appropriation, fund first, a maximum participation with the federal government for the construction of federally designated highways, as provided by law, and last, the construction of State highways, as funding permits. It is also the intent of the Legislature that the FTE's for field crews may be adjusted to accommodate the increase or decrease in the Federal Construction Program. No portion of the money appropriated by this item shall be used either directly or indirectly to enhance the appropriations otherwise made by this act to the Department of Transportation for other purposes.

The Legislature intends that any and all collections or cash income from the sale or salvage of land and buildings are to be lapsed to the Transportation Fund.

Under terms of Section 63J-1-402-(3)(a) Utah Code Annotated, item 230 of Chapter 2 Laws of Utah 2008 is made non-lapsing with the use of any non-lapsing funds limited to the following: Highway Maintenance $2,000,000.

Funding Detail

Program: Maintenance Administration

Function

The Department has set up the Engineer for Maintenance fund to cover extraordinary snow storms, natural disasters or other unexpected emergencies. The record snowfall of January 1993 and the mud slide near Cedar City that took out part of the highway are examples of where these funds have been used. Near the end of the year these funds will be distributed to the regions for regular maintenance functions if emergency expenditures are not required.

Maintenance operations generally are performed by Department personnel and may range from keeping the highway free of litter to repairing extensive damage caused by storms or floods. Traffic services also include highway striping, signs, signals, lighting, roadside rest areas, right-of-way planting, maintenance and emergency assistance to traffic such as snow and ice removal. Maintenance of the highway system is primarily the financial responsibility of the State of Utah. Inflation, coupled with increased lane miles of highway surface, has caused expenditures for maintenance to rise.

Funding Detail

Program: Region 1

Function

Region 1 is responsible for highway needs in Box Elder, Cache, Morgan, Rich, Weber, and Davis Counties in the northern part of Utah. The region headquarters is located in Ogden. They are assigned responsibility for designing, constructing and maintaining State highways in those counties. Region 1 has 936 lineal miles of roadway to maintain which equates to 2,647 lane miles of surface. This work is accomplished through fifteen maintenance stations plus three sub-stations located strategically throughout the region. Region 1 currently has a 118 person snow plan. The people doing this work are located at the various maintenance stations.

Funding Detail

Program: Region 2

Function

Region 2 is made up of Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele Counties. In addition to the local governments Region 2 works with, they coordinate with 22 Community Councils and seven Neighborhood Councils. These councils represent the people of Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City respectively. Region 2 serves approximately 45% of the people of the State of Utah.

Region 2 is responsible to maintain 3,510 lane miles of roadways in primarily urban locations. The urban setting often adds challenges associated with high volumes of traffic that more rural districts don't have to contend with.

The I-15 corridor rebuild has brought new challenges to the maintenance crews in the Salt Lake Valley. Not only has traffic increased on alternate routes, the surface areas available to push snow on I-15 almost are nonexistent. Region 2 maintenance personnel have developed new techniques to minimize challenges of snow removal. One of the innovations is to pre-wet road surfaces with a sodium chloride or magnesium chloride solution shortly before forecasted storms arrive in the valley.

Region 2 crews, like all other Region and District crews, are cross-trained in both maintenance and construction practices so they are able to work in both areas. The biggest challenge they face is the Department's inability to fund an optimal maintenance program, thus pavements in the Region are deteriorating and requiring more effort to hold them together.

Funding Detail

Program: Region 3

Function

The Region 3 headquarters are located in Orem. It encompasses the six counties of Juab, Utah, Wasatch, Duchesne, Uintah, and Dagget. The responsibilities include maintenance of 2,795 lane miles of Utah highways. With the addition of several major construction projects, including I-15 reconstruction, an additional 207 lane miles will be added to the State system by 2015.

Funding Detail

Program: Region 4

Function

During FY 2009, the decision was made by the Department to combine the Richfield, Price and Cedar Maintenance Districts into one Region Maintenance program. Beginning in FY 2010, Region 4 Maintenance is responsible for roadway maintenance and construction within Kane, Garfield, Piute, Wayne, Sevier, Sanpete, San Juan, Grand, Emery, Carbon, Washington, Iron, Beaver and Millard Counties. Currently, the Region is responsible for 7,306 lane miles of roadways.

Funding Detail

Program: Seasonal Pools

Function

The Seasonal Pool is used during peak maintenance and construction seasons to augment the permanent staff. The seasonal employees are often college students who seek seasonal employment. Funding for Seasonal Pools is set aside to give the Department flexibility to assign funding for maintenance and construction assistance in areas most affected by seasonal weather and construction projects. No permanent FTEs are assigned to this program, however, Department is able to hire seasonal employees that are the equivalent of 90 FTEs with the funding provided with this appropriation.

Funding Detail

Program: Lands & Buildings

Function

The Land and Buildings Program was created to give the Department a funding source to improve and maintain maintenance buildings and rest areas in the state. The Transportation and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee is responsible for building maintenance and repair projects costing less than $350,000. Those projects over $350,000 are by statute administered by the Division of Facilities Construction and Management.

Funding Detail

Program: Field Crews

Function

The resonsibility of field crews is to oversee the actual construction of highway projects. Their assignment includes oversight of all aspects of highway construction. The field crews also oversee project control to ensure maximum safety measures are considered for the motoring public in a given construction area. The Field Crew program has one hundred and seventy one FTEs that are assigned throughout the State.

UDOT has implemented a program called Transportation Technicians - a mobile work force that moves back and forth between maintenance and construction depending on programmatic workload. All Construction and Maintenance level one, two, and three positions have now been converted to the Transportation Technician classification.

Funding Detail

Program: Traffic Safety/Tramway

Function

The Traffic Safety section is responsible for developing and issuing statewide direction, policies and procedures for all traffic safety related standards. The Division is responsible for planning and programming of Federal and State funding used in transportation safety programs and projects. These programs include highway projects and roadway/railroad crossing projects. They are also responsible for implementation of statewide standards associated with work zone safety and mobility, and establishing and issuing standards for school zone safety.

This program oversees traffic studies to warrant traffic signs, establish speed limits, crosswalks, school zones and other traffic engineering study based safety items. They are also responsible for developing and administering the crash data for the State. This work includes preparing crash reports for the Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. This section also has responsibility for railroad and ski lift inspections.

Funding Detail

Program: Sign Operations

Function

In 2008 the FTEs in the sign shop were reassigned to increase efficiencies and reduce sign production costs. The fabrication of the signs has been contracted out to private vendors as well as Utah Correctional Industries.

Funding Detail

Program: Traffic Operations Center

Function

The Traffic Operations Center is a part of the Traffic Management Division. The Traffic Management Division is responsible for planning, designing, installing, operating, and maintaining advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies to improve transportation mobility, safety, economic prosperity and customer satisfaction.

Funding Detail

Program: Maintenance Planning

Function

The Maintenance Planning office is responsible for administering the maintenance operations of the State Highway System. Specifically, this office prepares the annual maintenance budget, develops improved maintenance activities, encourages the training of all maintenance personnel in each region, and develops the yearly maintenance work program. This office also manages the contract maintenance work performed throughout the state. The main objective of the Maintenance Planning Office is to provide the best maintenance program possible with the funds appropriated.

Funding Detail