Media Center
Transportation Today
News Releases
DOT Flix
Inside Transportation
Archives

Alerts
RPIN Breaking News
Road Alerts
My Commute

King Co. DOT
KCDOT Home Page
Metro Transit
Road Services
KC International Airport
Fleet Administration

You are in: Transportation > Transportation Today > DOT Flix > Transcripts

Metro Transit | Road Services | KC Int'l Airport | Fleet Services
 

Text transcript of the video "Rural-Urban services "

Watch this video clip (Real Media) Length: 7:20

Watch this video clip (Windows Media) Length: 7:20

Story Introduction:
King County is more than 2,100 square miles, not the largest county in the state when you are talking geographical size, but with more than 1.8 million residents, King County does rank number one in the state of Washington in terms of population. In fact, you can add the population of Pierce and Snohomish counties together, and you’re still a few hundred thousand short of equaling the population of King County.

More than two thirds of King County residents live outside the city of Seattle. And according to the 2005 King County annual growth report, an estimated 360 thousand people live in unincorporated areas of the county. The King County Department of Transportation provides various services to residents through out the county…sometimes through contracts with cities, but the service needs for residents in urban areas are different than the services residents in rural areas have come to rely on.

Narrator says:
If you live in rural, unincorporated King County, the King County Department of Transportation Road Services Division provides a wide spectrum of services in your neighborhood. Maybe even a few you haven’t thought of.

Some of the services may seem obvious for a roads division, services such as road and bridge construction and repairs, asphalt overlays, placing culverts under roads, the installation of traffic signage and safety guardrails, along with traffic monitoring.

Some of the services may not be obvious, such as vegetation mowing or removal to improve lines of sight, eliminate weeds and reduce fire hazards. Or fish protection as part of road projects, to make sure the small fry are getting a fair shake.

Some of the services in rural areas are seasonal, the county does it’s fair share of snow plowing in the winter months, as well as storm debris clean-up and the closure of roads due to flooding. These services are critical to rural residents where there may be only one road in or out of an area. And then there are services that encourage citizens to help clean up highways, such as the adopt a road program or monitoring illegal dumping. These are all services that the road services division conducts on an ongoing basis and rural county residents know without them, they could be stranded in or away from their homes.

Jan Blumberg moved to East King County near Lake Margaret more than a decade ago. She enjoys the quiet, rural lifestyle and doesn’t mind a bit that she’s an hour’s drive away from Seattle. When she noticed a road beginning to fail down the street from her home, she feared it may impact a water line that serves her neighborhood and she contacted the county to see what could be done.

Jan Blumberg/King County rural resident says:
I thought who am I going to call?  I don't know how to contact the road department.  But I looked on the web and there it was, an email notification of a problem with your road, so  I was able to send in my description of what was needed.  Within a day I received a response, not an automatic response but a real person response which was great, that it had been received and would be taken care of.  Within about three or four days, the road crew came and they dumped lots and lots of dirt and gravel and they restored the area that becomes the driveway off our road and repaired the road surface and the next day the crew chief whose name I believe was Greg, gave me a personal phone call saying that they had done the work.  I was very pleased not only with the response but with the personal touch that came with it.  That makes a lot of difference, especially when you live in a rural area and the road department is headquartered somewhere far away.

Narrator says:
During her years in the rural community, Jan has come to appreciate the services King County provides.

Jan Blumberg/King County rural resident says:
Our property has one road, so we and a lot of other people in this network rely on that single road.  it's a two lane road, it doesn't have any shoulder, there's a ditch on each side of the road so its rather critical to us that that be maintained and it's done very well.  I'm constantly amazed at the mowing and the ditching and the repairing and the striping and restripping and all the things that go into keeping these roads open, it's amazing.  And when I multiply that in my mind by all the rural roads in King County it kind of gives me an idea of the magnitude of your work.  We get excellent service as far as I'm concerned.  Of course we get pot holes, of course we have things that fall in our road, we have erosion, we have all the things and problems that any man made device has.   I think that the King County road departments service to us is really quite outstanding.

Narrator says:
In her rural community, Jan lives in a house with no TV, but she is a big user of the departments services online.

Jan Blumberg/King County rural resident says:
The fact that I can jump on the web and in a short time look up the web site is just terrific. 

Narrator says:
These same services are available in the more urban areas of unincorporated King County, but the focus changes when the population numbers go up. Road maintenance is still a major service, but street sweeping and vactoring as well as pot hole repair become more important when more cars are on the road.

And with increased traffic, there is more need for traffic monitoring, road patrols that respond to citizen complaints, intelligent transportation systems that synchronize traffic lights and smooth out traffic flows, as well as more crosswalks, sidewalks, traffic signage and other measures that help make neighborhoods safer.

Urban neighborhoods also require snow removal in the winter months, and there can be urban flooding problems too, so road service crews have to keep drains clear to keep roads open. All told, the King County Roads Division is responsible for nearly 2,000 miles of roadway and 220 bridges within the county boundaries.

The roads division also provides various contracted services to 35 local cities and special districts, plus two adjoining counties. Large cities in King County have the resources to provide most of their own services, but the smaller or more rural cities like contracting with King County, because it saves them time and money. We chatted with Duvall’s Director of Public Works Steve Schuller, about why Duvall partners with the county for some services.

Steve Schuller/Duvall Director of Public Works says:
We're a small rural city with about six-thousand folks and for us to go out for example with our overlay program where we every year have to overlay a certain amount of our roads, for us to go out and bid that would be very expensive. For us to go out and find a contractor who would do just a small amount of work. But working with King County has been very successful for us, just because again to do all of the specifications and the drawings would be very expensive and we just wouldn't get as good a price being such a small vendor.  So it kind of serves us in two ways, we can also use King County's expertise, we only have so many staff here and we're not experts in overlays so basically we use King County as consultants to help us work with the contractors to make sure we get a good product. 

Narrator says:
Whether you are an urban or rural resident of unincorporated King County, chances are good the roads you travel on are under the watchful eye of King County’s Road Services crews.

Story tag:
If you live in an unincorporated area of King County and you see something that needs to be done on a road that is maintained by the county, the road services division would like to hear from you.

You can call them on the 24/7 road helpline at (206) 296-8100, or 1-800-527-6237. You can also email the King County Road Services Division…just go to the roads web page at www.metrokc.gov/roads…and follow the link to "need something done on your county road."

Return to Dot Flix home page
 

Updated:  August 16, 2006

DOT Home
Metro | Planning | Roadways | Alternatives
Happenings | Airport | Site Map

King County | News | Services | Comments | Search