County Road Department
The County Road Department is tasked to maintain all of the assets on 600 county roads, which cover more than 386 miles. These assets include 111 bridges, more than 3,000 culverts, guard rails, more than 5,000 traffic signs, road striping, levees, ditches and shoulders.
Tillamook County is divided into three areas: North, Central, and South. Each district has a Public Works shop and yard. The North County shop is located in Nehalem, the Central County shop is located in Tillamook (along with the fleet maintenance shop and main office), and the South County shop is located in Cloverdale.
North Area
The North area extends from the Clatsop County border to the intersection of Miami-Foley Road with Hwy 101. This area includes Falcon Cove Road immediately south of the Hwy 101 tunnel and a portion of Cochran Road in the eastern part of the County near the town of Timber.
Central Area
This area extends from Hobsonville Drive to Green Timber Road (south of Pleasant Valley).
South Area
This area extends south of Green Timber Road to the Lincoln County border. This district includes Savage Road, which can only be reached by driving through Lincoln County south of Cascade Head.
County Road System
To view our County Roads, please click on the link. http://tillamook.streetpixweb.com/
The 386 miles of roads under Tillamook County's jurisdiction generally consists of all the roads within the county except for the following:
- City Streets (Note: there are County Roads within the city limits of several incorporated cities).
- Forest Roads (The 2 major public forests in Tillamook County are the Tillamook State Forest and Siuslaw National Forest)
- Private Roads
- State Highways: 101 (Pacific Coast Hwy), 22 (Three Rivers Hwy), 131 (Netarts-Oceanside Hwy), 6 (Wilson River Hwy), 53 (Necanicum Hwy), and 130 (Little Nestucca River Hwy).
The primary function of the Road Department is to maintain county roads. County roads are roads which have been dedicated to the public and then accepted by the Board of County Commissioners to be maintained by the county. State Highways such as Hwy 101 and Hwy 131 are not County Roads and are maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation. The primary maintenance activities performed by the Road Department are: striping, brush cutting, sanding, snow plowing, sign maintenance, gravel road grading, vegetation management, paving, and bridge maintenance. The crew is on-call 24 hours per day to mitigate any other potential safety problem.
Other functions include implementing county ordinances, contracting large projects, obtaining permits for work in environmentally sensitive areas, writing grant proposals to obtain additional state and federal funds, managing Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation funds, repairing Road Department equipment and responding to storms.
Employees
The Road Department is currently budgeted for 24 employees; there is a vacancy for a Road Equipment Operator. The breakdown is as follows:
Road Maintenance: 11
Fleet Maintenance: 3
Engineering, Bridge, Signs and Permits: 3
Administrative Staff: 2
Director: 1
Due to decreasing budgets, the Road Department has decreased from 50 employees in 1982 to 40 employees in 1996 to 24 employees in 2021.
