San Andreas, CA…Calaveras County Public Works Department has been steadily working on road repair since the Butte Fire burned over 70,000 acres and damaged portions of over 80 miles of public roads within the burn area. Along with the damage to the roads done by the fire and the suppression effort, the recovery effort with its sheer numbers of heavy equipment and vehicles further impacted the roads.

 The initial work to restore safe travel within the burn area has included the removal of fallen trees and other debris, replacing damaged traffic signs, repairing surface damage, and clearing debris from the roadway after rain events.

 Future activities for recovery will be underway in the months ahead. The county is in the process of hiring an arborist to assess and identify hazardous trees along County roads. This could affect property owners who have hazardous trees adjacent to and threatening public roads. Once identified property owners will be contacted and asked to sign a Right of Entry to allow the county or its representative to access their property for assessment and removal of those hazard trees. .

 The county will then be hiring a consultant to develop repair strategies for roads based on available funding. The planning and design work is expected to start in late spring or early summer. Advertising for construction contractors to complete road repair and or remove hazardous trees is expected to begin in late summer to early fall 2016.

For more information, visit the Butte Fire Recovery website at www.butte.calaverasgov.us
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