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County Roads
County Roads

Welcome to the County Roads Department

Mission statement

The mission of the Roads and Airports Department is to preserve, operate, and enhance the County's expressways, unincorporated roads, and two general aviation airports in a safe, timely and cost-effective manner to meet the needs of the traveling public.​ 

The County's Roads and Airports Department, operates and maintains 62 miles of expressway and 635 miles of rural and urban roadways in unincorporated areas, including 23 miles of sound walls, 168 bridges, 39 miles of carpool lanes, 164 signalized intersections, 4,500 street lights, 25,000 regulatory signs, and 2,185 drain inlets. It also operates and maintains the County's two general aviation airports at Reid-Hillview and San Martin — comprised of 7 miles of runways and taxiways, 145 aircraft hangars, and 648 open aircraft tie-down storage spaces.​​​

About us

The Roads and Airports Department is primarily funded by state and federal gasoline taxes and a portion of these taxes is returned directly to the County in amounts determined by statutory formulas. In addition to this funding, some of special road and infrastructure development projects are funded through grant programs. The Airports​ Division of Roads and Airport Department is funded through the Airport Enterprise Fund which consists of the revenue generated from aircraft storage revenue. In addition to this funding, some special airport projects are funded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Caltrans.

The Roads and Airports department is comprised of 4 divisions; Administration Services, Infrastructure Development, Road and Signal Operations and Airport Operations. Each division plays a key role to provide the traveling public with safe County roads by ensuring that the County maintained roads and airports are well maintained and meet the increasing demand of all types of users who travel in the Santa Clara County Roads system.

Administration and Finance Division

This division supports the entire Roads and Airports Department by providing support services in the area of administrative, personnel, grant coordination, information​ services, public relations, fiscal and budget.

Infrastructure Development Division

The Infrastructure Development Division provides engineering, project delivery, transportation planning, development services, and technical support services to the Roads and Airports Department as well as directly to the public.

Infrastructure Division Administration

  • Roads and Airports Department record drawings management and construction/consultant procurement administration

Traffic Signal and Electrical Design Section

The Traffic Signal and Electrical Design Section is responsible for:

  • Design and construction support for traffic signal, street lighting, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), and other miscellaneous electrical projects
  • Managing the fiber optic network along the County expressway system delivering CCTV video and communications to our Traffic Operations Center

Survey Section

The Survey Section provides topographical mapping and control surveys for the design and construction of public improvement projects. We perform boundary surveys to locate County Roads and Airports- owned properties, right of way limits and easement locations. The Survey Section also works to locate, recover and preserve monuments for future use by the survey community.

Bridge Design Section

The Bridge Design Section has oversight of County Roads and Airport's 175+ bridges including:

  • Performing bridge inspections
  • Delivery of bridge improvement projects including preventive maintenance, repairs, rehabilitations, and replacements

Principal Engineer

Oversight of the Roads and Airport Capital Improvement Program

Highway Design Section

The Highway Design Section provides engineering oversight, including delivery of capital improvement projects, for County Roads and Airport’s eight Expressways, Reid Hillview and San Martin Airports, and all other County roads.

Transportation Planning and Grants Section

The Transportation Planning and Grants Section responsibilities include:

  • Long range transportation planning for the expressway and unincorporated road network
  • Bike, pedestrian, and multi-modal planning 
  • Grant administration and funding analysis
  • Support Capital Project development and Land Development with review

Land Development and Permits Section

The Land Development and Permits Section processes and coordinates reviews of development and construction projects that impact the County maintained roadway system and issues the necessary permits. Our team strives to meet the development and permitting needs of the development community, utility companies and the public, while protecting the traveling public’s interest and safety by ensuring all construction in the public right-of-way (ROW) is designed and constructed to County standards and specifications.

Construction Operations Section

The Construction Operations Section is responsible for the construction management and inspection of all Capital Improvement Projects for County-owned roads, expressways, bridges, traffic signals, street lights, intelligent traffic systems, fiber, and other roadway infrastructure. The Construction Operations Division is also responsible for providing inspection and oversight for encroachment permits within the County right of way, typically performed by utility companies, other municipalities, and property owners. In addition, Construction Operations provides staff for disaster services and emergency operations as needed.

Road and Signal Operations Division

The Road and Signal Operations Division is responsible for the maintenance of all county-owned roads, expressways, traffic signals, street lights, intelligent traffic systems, fiber, and other roadway infrastructure. Our staff works 24/7 to provide a safe and reliable means of travel across the county road system.  The list below are few tasks of the many responsibilities​ the Road and Signal Operations Division perform to keep the county roads safe:

  • maintenance and minor construction on the county bridges, roads, traffic signals, streetlights;
  • responding to emergency request during storms, accidents, spills and natural disasters; 
  • sub-grade repair, patching, maintenance paving, and chip sealing; ditch, culvert and water retention system cleaning and repair.
  • installation and maintenance of traffic control devices, signs, striping, crosswalks, arrow, fences and guardrails;
  • repair and maintenance of county pumps, generators and facility security;
  • road closure, homeless encampment, illegal dumping cleanup, vegetation control;
  • work as assigned disaster service workers and assist in set up of emergency operations locations.

Road and Signal Operations locations - map that shows our 4 locations and the areas that they serve throughout Santa Clara County.

Road and Signal Operations - Learn about the organization of the Road and Signal Operations, which performs repairs and scheduled maintenance of the County roads network, traffic signal systems and facility infrastructure.

Airport Operations

The Airports Division manages two general aviation reliever airports for the County of Santa Clara.  These two airports, Reid-Hillview and San Martin, are the gateway for non-commercial aviation in Silicon Valley and are available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Airport staff manages the physical facilities that make up the airports, including the runways and taxiways, grounds, buildings, and aircraft parking areas. Additionally, the staff will meet and greet visiting pilots, provides school tours, and rent aircraft parking spaces.

Related articles

Published standards, specifications, documents, and forms of the Roads Department specify the methods and requirements for projects constructed for the Roads Department.

Published standards, specifications, documents and forms