Highway
About Us
The Highway Division staffs a team of 39 labor positions. These professionals provide services to the city as Secretary/Dispatcher, Equipment Operators, Drivers, and Laborer/Masons. The Highway Division is responsible for public safety in the form of the repair and maintenance of city roads, sidewalks, curbs, bridges, storm drains, and waterways.
At the Highway Division, public safety is job number one. We actively maintain the public right-of-way by administering and scheduling programs such as road maintenance repair and replacement, storm drain maintenance repair and replacement, road sweeping, sightline mowing, street sign installation, debris pick up, and litter clean up.
Our Road Improvement and Maintenance Program included the reclaiming, milling, and paving of over 10 miles of city roads in 2020. Maintenance continued in the spring as we employed the
"Pot Hole Killer" mobile batch asphalt plant to fill potholes throughout the city. Road Maintenance also included crack sealing, where crumb rubber hot asphalt emulsion is applied to existing cracked road surface to prevent water penetration and early road failure.
The Highway Division prepares for the winter, during the fall. Thirty-eight plow routes are reviewed and updated. Salt truck applications are calibrated. Our Highway staff responded to 15 winter storms during the 2020/2021 ice and snow season. The storms brought more than 53 inches of snow, sleet, and freezing rain, which required 6,840 tons of salt to make the roads safe. At Highway, we keep safe over 240 miles of road, as well as public buildings and school parking lots.
On August 4th of 2020, Danbury was struck by Tropical Storm Isaias. The storms heavy wind and rain downed trees and power lines. The Mayor and Governor Lamont issued Emergency Declarations. The Public Services Department worked around the clock with the Danbury Emergency Operations Manager and Eversource to identify broken poles and clean up tree damage to expedite and minimize power outages.
Working with the City Traffic Authority, the Highway Division Street sign crew installed regulatory, warning, and directional signs, recreational and cultural signs, emergency management, construction, and detour signs.
The Highway Division also provides city residents with annual service programs. In the spring and again in the fall we service the city with the bi-annual Leaf Pick Up Program. For 30 days each spring and fall, city residents can set bagged leaves at their curbside and the Highway Division will take it away to be used as compost. Properly bundled twigs are removed in the same manner during the same program schedule.
Other programs include garbage removal from fixed city-owned receptacles, recycling drop-off at our Mobile Recycling Truck five days per week, Road Millings for sale, as well as sponsoring and supporting Household Hazardous Waste Days.
Our Accomplishments
- Reclaimed, milled, and paved 10.17 miles of city roads.
- Completed improvements to the Danbury Westerners Baseball Field at Rogers Park.
- Eliminated 4 known icing areas.
- Replaced or repaired 267 storm basins, including 4363 linear feet of drainage pipe.
- Swept over 240 miles of city streets.
- Fought 15 ice and snow storms that brought 53.9 inches of snow.
- Tropical Storm Isaias clean up.
- Paving of the City Hall parking lot.
- Biannual Curbside Leaf and Twig Pick Up Program.
- Recyclable drop-off 5 days per week.
- Annual Household Hazardous Waste Drop-off Day.
- Daily public area garbage pick-ups.