Carter County Highway Department

COUNTY MAINTAINS MOUNTAIN ROADS YEAR ROUND

Roan Mountain, at 6,285 feet tall, is the highest point in Tennessee outside the Great Smoky Mountains. Maintaining many miles of mountain roads is the responsibility of the Carter County Highway Department. During the winter, the department spends most of its time clearing snow off the higher-altitude roads. During warmer weather they take on projects such as resurfacing, draining, maintenance and repair.

“The biggest challenge is that mountainous terrain. Everything is more confined and situated in areas that are not open,” said Jonathon Powell, Carter County Highway Department supervisor and a 16-year veteran of the organization. “We’re a big maintenance company, taking on about 700 miles of roadway.”

For 20 years, the department was led by Jack Perkins. Stepping into the elected role to replace Perkins in August 2014 was Roger Colbaugh, who brings 40 years of experience at the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Colbaugh was born and raised in Carter County before working for TDOT, and he had come back to retire there when the superintendent position became open at Perkins’ retirement. Colbaugh won a landslide victory in that election, and since then has put the wheels in motion to improve road drainage and surfaces, with an emphasis on building new bridges for the county. Nationwide, unstable bridges have been a rising concern as infrastructure ages, he said.

“I’m getting a program set up to start building bridges. We have six on the list and we’re working on the design for them,” Colbaugh said. “That’s one of my big concerns, replacing bridges in poor condition.”

Another major project this summer has been to grade mountain roads that aren’t paved, and add more crushed stone to the roadway surface. While the department has its own paver and rollers to lay asphalt, stone is used for the less-traveled roadways in the mountains.

For both cold and warm weather projects, Carter County uses a Cat® 924K Wheel Loader,
Powell said. When it’s warm, the wheel loader handles materials such as the crushed stone for
road re-surfacing.

“Caterpillar makes good quality machines, and you can get them serviced easily. When it comes to repairs, the parts are available and Stowers Machinery has consultants and technicians who know their jobs. Stowers responds immediately whether you’re doing the mechanical work yourself, or they’re doing it,” Colbaugh said.

When it snows or ices over in the winter, the wheel loader is used to load salt trucks for the roads.
“When it snows, it’s non-stop work, 24-hours a day. In two of the heaviest weeks of snow, we
used 3,000 tons of salt,” Powell said.

Powell said he’s had a great working relationship with Stowers Machinery the entire time he’s been with the department, and that there’s almost no downtime because of Stower’s ability to provide service quickly.

The roads traversing the rugged mountains of Carter County may be a challenge at times, but it is one that Colbaugh has enthusiastically embraced.

“I think that here in Tennessee, we have some of the best roads in the region,” Colbaugh said.

This story first appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of Governmental Solutions magazine, a national magazine for governmental agency employees who purchase or operate machinery and equipment for the organization they serve.  Download the story as it appeared in the magazine.

Visit Carter County Highway Department’s website to learn more about the department.