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July / August 2010
Volume 22, Number 4

News you can use

TAC Unit road survey Available to Counties

TAC’s County Information Project recently published the results of a new survey that can help elected officials determine which of the four types of county road systems are being utilized across the state, and where. The survey, titled “County Road System Report,” was finalized last month.

The report identifies 59 counties that use the County Road Department System described in Subchapter D, Chapter 252 of the Transportation Code, commonly referred to as the “unit road system,” as seen in the accompanying map. Under this system, a county creates a road department that has responsibility county or one superintendent in each county commissioner’s precinct. The road superintendents then have general supervision over the public roads in the road superintendent’s county or precinct and the county inmates working on the roads. Only nine counties reported using road superintendents.

Both the road commissioners described in Subchapter B and the road superintendents described in Subchapter C are subject to the general supervision of the commissioners court. Anyone with questions about the Unit Road Survey can contact Tim Brown at timb@county.org or (512) 478-8753. A color map and full version of the report is available in PDF Types of road systems Used by Texas Counties for the construction and maintenance of county roads. If a county adopts Subchapter D, the ownership and use of county road department equipment, materials and supplies, and the administration of the county road department are based on the county as a whole without regard to commissioners’ precincts.

More typically, commissioners retain those responsibilities and duties under what is known as the precinct system, which is described in Subchapter A, Chapter 252, Transportation Code; according to survey results, 110 of the responding counties use this optional Ex Officio Road Commissioner System or the default system described in Chapter 251.

Subchapters B and C describe two less well-known systems. The Road Commissioner System found in Subchapter B is used by 13 counties, according to the survey. This system provides for the county to employ up to four road commissioners, who must reside in the district in which they are employed. Each road commissioner “controls the overseers, laborers, tools, machinery and vehicles to be used on the roads in the road commissioner’s district and may require overseers to deploy laborers that the road commissioner designates to open, work on, or repair roads or to build or repair bridges or culverts in the district.”

The least utilized road system is the Road Superintendent System, described in Subchapter C. Under the Road Superintendent System, the county commissioners court appoints either one road superintendent for the format at the www.county.org website by scrolling over the “Online Resources” tab, then expanding the “County Information Project/ County Data” option and clicking on “CIP Products.”