The County Engineer works to construct new roads and performs general civil work on special construction projects. The County Engineer also provides engineering services for County government functions. These services include management of transportation infrastructure and drainage improvement projects, review of development plans and inspection of construction activities for compliance with County ordinances relating to roadway and drainage design and construction, traffic engineering including evaluation of signing and marking and intersection/roadway safety and efficiency on County roads, and advising other departments on civil engineering-related matters, particularly the Public Works Department.
(1) Contact the County Engineer to acquire a County Petition Form. (2) The applicant shall get signatures of all property owners along the road to be paved (or as many of the property owners as possible) on the provided County Petition Form. Once all of the signatures have been obtained, return to the County Engineer.
(3) The Board of Commissioners, along with staff recommendations, will prioritize which roads are to be paved. Prioritization factors include such characteristics as, is the road prioritized in the Bulloch County Long Range Transportation Improvement Plan, the number of residences and amount of traffic on the road, difficulty of maintenance of the road, and ability to acquire the necessary right of way for paving the road.
(4) If a road is selected for paving by the Board of Commissioners, when funds are made available, the County will have the road surveyed.
(5) The County will contact the property owners along the road to get signatures on right of way deeds. The County requires a 60 foot right of way for paved roads, which is normally measured as 30 feet to each side from the center of the existing road.
(6) After all of the right of way has been acquired, the County will proceed with clearing and grading of the road base, followed by the paving of the road.
In accordance with O.C.G.A. 32-7-2 and O.C.G.A. 32-7-4, the County may abandon roads or road segments which have ceased to be used by the public to the extent that no substantial public purpose is served by it or that its removal from the county road system is otherwise in the best public interest. If a County Road is abandoned, the County will not longer perform any maintenance on the road. Also, school buses may cease to use the road and mail delivery may be affected on roads that are abandoned by the County. If a property owner wishes to petition the County to abandon a road, they should
(1) contact the County Engineer to obtain a County Petition Form.
(2) Signatures should be obtained for all property owners along the road as well as any property owners who must use the road as their only means of ingress/egress to their property. The petition form will state that the property owners release and indemnify the County from any duty to maintain the road. The applicant will have to pay a processing fee subject to the Board of Commissioners’ adopted fee schedule.
(3) County staff will review the application, and a public hearing before the Board of Commissioners will be scheduled.
(1) Contact the County Engineer to obtain a County Petition Form. (2) The County Engineer will perform a traffic study on the road in which factors such as traffic speed, length, and steepness of the road will be considered.
(3) If the County’s criteria for these factors are met and the petition has been completed with signatures of 80% of the property owners along the road, the Board of Commissioners will consider the request in a public hearing.
(4) If the request is approved by the Board, a special tax assessment district may be authorized to fund the traffic calming improvements. For more details, refer to Section 17 of the Bulloch County Roads, Highways, and Bridges Policies.
