Highway Department

The Rutherford County Highway Dept. maintains the roads which are listed in the Rutherford County Road Book. State roads, City streets and any other roads which are not listed in the County Commission approved Road Book, cannot be worked on by the Highway Dept. There are over 998 miles in the current Rutherford County Road Book.

The Road Superintendent is elected to a four-year term, as is the seven-member Road Board. The Superintendent is responsible for the day-to-day operations. This department receives funding from state fuel tax, portions of the wheel tax, and portions of the mineral severance tax. The only property tax it receives is to off road right-of-way, county approved, drainage problems. This amounts to approximately $ 750,000 a year, or less than one cent of the property tax.

The Rutherford County Road Board is a 7-member elected board who represents 3 County Commissioner districts in each zone. Road Board members meet once a month at the office of the Rutherford County Highway Dept., with the exceptions of June (has 2 meetings) and there are no meetings in July. During these meetings the Road Board members approve financials to include the annual operating budget, award bids, approve right-of-way annexations, acceptance of the off-road drainage easements, approve new subdivision roads into the County Road Book, discuss concerns of their constituents with the Highway Dept. and approve the annual Rutherford County Highway Dept. Road Book.

The Highway Dept. office is located at 1510 Rutledge Way. This facility was completed in December 2003, at no additional cost to the taxpayers. The two-Million-dollar facility was built from the ending fund balance of previous year’s budgets. The shop is a state-of-the-art facility, where we do all maintenance and repair to our equipment.

The Highway Dept. owns its own rock quarry and crushing facility. There are several crews that do paving, mowing, trucking and anything else to do with road maintenance. We have approximately 70 employees, which is relatively small number compared to other counties our size. These employees are dedicated men and women who do an excellent job, whatever it may be.