Highway Department
Matt Wittum
Highway Superintendent
Phone: (262) 275-6300 ext. 17
Email: linnhighway@townoflinn.wi.gov
It is the Town and Highway Department's goal to provide safe vehicular travel on all Town owned roads. The Town employs 3 full-time employees and seasonal plowing staff in the winter to maintain the 66 miles of roadway within our jurisdiction. The Highway Department is unique as it maintains roadways on both the North and South shores of Geneva Lake. The Highway Department is responsible for the maintenance of pavement, drainage systems, vegetation, and signage on all Town owned roads. Should you have a question, comment, or concern, please call the Highway Department at 262.275.6300 ext. 18, or submit here and you will receive a response as soon as we can.
Signage
The Highway Department is responsible for maintenance, repair and installation of street and regulatory signs on Town owned roads.
Request to replace an existing damaged or stolen street sign? Contact the Highway Department.
Request to add a new street sign? Contact Officer Gunyon at ggunyon@townoflinn.wi.gov.
Tree and Vegetation Maintenance
The Highway Department mows Town roadsides where applicable generally from April-October, weather permitting. Routine tree work, including cutbacks, removals and line-of sight corrections occur year round.
Free woodchips are available at the back of the Fire Station located on Hillside Road. It is self-serve, and we ask that you keep the area as neat as possible.
Culverts and Drainage
The Highway Department is responsible for general maintenance of all areas of drainage located within the right-of-way on Town owned roads. Property owners are responsible for the maintenance and/or replacement of culverts under driveways that allow access to their property. Certain situations will exist, per ordinance, that the Town may assist in the replacement process. Should you have a drainage issue or would like to report a blocked or bad culvert, please call to report it or submit your request online. In addition, please contact the Highway Department with any concerns or questions regarding culvert replacements or if you receive a notice that your culvert requires action from the Town.
Pavement Maintenance
The Highway Department in conjunction with contractors hired, performs general maintenance and repairs. Pavement maintenance activities, when done timely and correctly, can add years to a pavement systems life. Listed below are the tasks that get performed:
- Pothole Patching
- Crack Sealing
- Cut & Patch
- Chip Sealing
- Microsurfacing
- Striping
- Re-surfacing
Crack Sealing is a preventative street maintenance technique where small cracks are sealed with a rubberized asphalt product, creating long thick "snake like" lines in the street. By sealing cracks in the streets, water is kept out, and less damage occurs during the freeze thaw cycles in the spring and fall. The department evaluates streets in order to determine if crack sealing is needed. Crack sealing has been proven to extend the life of streets therefore saving the Town money it would have spent on re-surfacing.
Cut & Patch work gets performed by contractors when certain smaller sections of roadway have deteriorated to the point where crack sealing and pothole patch work will not correctly solve the problem. The contractor will mill or grind out the failed portion of pavement, clean out the area that was ground, apply a sealer or tack to location and install 2"(minimum) of hot surface mix asphalt to the patch area.
Chip sealing and microsurfacing are pavement maintenance practices that involve putting a thin layer of material over existing pavements. This generally follows a crack seal/fill or cut and patch program on a given road.
The Highway Department works in conjunction with the Town's Engineer and other sources to evaluate and determine which roads may need to be re-surfaced if none of the maintenance practices will further benefit a road.
Snow and Ice Control
The Highway Department has a proactive approach to snow and ice control operations through effective use of manpower, equipment, chemicals and technology.
The Highway Department takes a great deal of responsibility for keeping 66 miles of roadway within the Town as clear as possible of snow and ice accumulations. The Highway Department is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the winter months to address snow and ice related concerns.
General Policy
This policy is a passable roads policy that specifically recognizes that some snow and ice may and will remain on the pavement for certain amounts of time after a snow/ice event on some Town roads.
Ice control operations will commence when hazardous conditions begin to develop. The objective of the Town's Snow and Ice Control Program is to respond to poor road condition reports within 30 minutes during normal work hours and within 60 minutes after hours. Snow plowing operations will commence after snow has started to accumulate on the pavement causing hazardous driving conditions.
Streets maintained by the Town of Linn are prioritized into 4 categories:
- Main/Primary Arterial
- Main Subdivision
- Secondary/Cross Streets
- Dead end streets
Plowing and ice control generally occurs between the hours of 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. Between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. trucks are used as needed to keep main and primary roads passable. Certain weather conditions/events may dictate deviation from these parameters.
Right-of-way Damage
Unfortunately, while removing snow from Town roads, some turf may get torn up from the plow blades. Please call the Highway Department to report turf damage and we will repair it in the spring when time and materials become available.
Salt & Chemical Use
In order to keep roads as safe as possible, the Highway Department not only uses salt (dry material) but combines salt with a liquid salt solution whenever possible to aid in the removal of snow and ice accumulations on paved surfaces. The two biggest benefits of using a liquid in addition to salt are:
- Salt needs moisture to work. Adding a liquid activates salt faster than just using a dry material.
- Using a liquid allows more salt to stay on the road when spread; therefore, more material remains on the pavement.
The Highway Department also uses a practice called anti-icing on selected Town owned roads. Anti-icing is a chemical application of salt brine to our main roads before an anticipated snow/ice event. This aids in the prevention of snow and/or ice from bonding to the pavement surface at the beginning of the event. You will recognize when a road has been given the application as it will have lines down each lane of travel.
Snow Emergency
A snow emergency may be declared by the Highway Superintendent, Highway Committee Chair, Town Chairman or other delegated authority when snow accumulations reach 6" or greater in a 24 hour period. When a snow emergency is declared, all Highway Department resources will be concentrated on snow and ice control. After the snow emergency is cancelled, the department's operations will return to normal. At that time any snow or mailbox concerns will be addressed along with any other service requests in a timely manner.
Snow in Driveways
Unfortunately, while removing snow from the streets, snow gets deposited in the ends of driveways. The Highway Department regrets any inconveniences but recognizes this as part of the snow removal process. It is illegal to push or deposit snow across and/or onto the streets. We ask residents to be considerate of the law.
To reduce the amount of snow that may get deposited at the end of your driveway, pile snow to the right side (as you face the street) of your driveway.
Specific snow and ice concerns, comments, suggestions can be directed to the highway department by calling the Town Hall or filling out a service form online. During snow and ice control operations, the department may take more than a day to respond to an issue.