Dry Run Flood Control Project
The street department maintains the levee system given guidelines by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. This includes: mowing, inspecting, repairing and removing any encroaching vegetation or sediment buildup.
Sign & Street Marking
The street department maintains, repairs, replaces and inventories thousands of street signs every year. We also repaint all street markings throughout the city every year.
Storm Sewer & Flood Gates
The street department maintains miles of storm sewer pipes, intakes and grates. We also maintain, repair and inspect monthly flood gates and dry run to keep the City of Decorah safe from possible flood water.
Emergency Operations
The City of Decorah Street Department is responsible for flooding water that requires interior discharge within the city limits. The street department is equipped with 6 tractor pumps that are positioned throughout the city during flooding.
The street department also has an aerial bucket truck, wood chipper, pickups, and chain saws for any storm damage or down trees.
Snow and Ice Operations
The City of Decorah has 100 centerline miles of highway (arterial and collector) and residential streets under its jurisdiction. The snow and ice control removal is a vital public service.
Providing snow and ice control is an enormous task. Variations in weather conditions, time, temperature, precipitation amounts and rates, wind conditions, topography, and traffic conditions make the problem complex. Some hazards and obstacles faced by snowplow drivers are vehicles traveling too fast and close to the plow, parked cars, garbage cans, raised manhole castings and children sliding and building forts too close to the streets. No two storms are alike, yet the task at hand is similar.
Timing is critical. Weather forecasting is a very important element in this process. The readiness of the equipment, materials, and personnel is most important to provide a quick response to the emergency.
The Decorah Street Department is equipped with 6 dump trucks with plows, 2 motor graders and 2 end loaders with snow blowers to clear snow and ice from the City of Decorah road ways during a snow emergency.