Right of Way Maintenance

Right of way maintenance ensures the roadside vegetation is properly maintained to allow safe and efficient use of city streets and sidewalks by the public. Right of way maintenance includes:

Roadway vegetation edging  

  1. Edging sidewalks and curbs and trimming of overhead vegetation within the pedestrian right of way;
  2. Clearing vision triangles and preventing vegetative obstruction of traffic signage and fire hydrants;
  3. Cleaning up storm and trash debris;
  4. Clearing City-owned lots of overgrowth and debris;
  5. Setting up safety work zones; and 
  6. Applying herbicide to problem areas as needed.

Mowing

  1. Cleaning debris from the right of way before mowing;
  2. Mowing ditch banks and retention basins;
  3. Mowing City lots;
  4. Applying herbicide to problem areas as needed.        

There are five right of way mowing routes in the City:

  1. Ditch Route: The Ditch Route consists of drainage ditches and retention ponds throughout the city.  Ditches and retention ponds drains City streets and neighborhoods. The operator assigned this route is tasked with mowing the tops of the ditch, and retention ponds as much as possible, while checking for signs of ditch erosion or blockage, which is reported and recorded by dispatch for the drainage crew to check and repair as needed.
  2. Large Route: The Large route consists of mowing wider areas with generally no sidewalk, non curb and guttered ROW. Larger and heavier tractors with 6 foot flail mowers are used to mow this route.
  3. Median Route: The Median route consists of mostly sidewalk areas within the City of Gainesville. This is a smaller and lighter route where smaller tractors such as the New Holland TC30 is used for mowing.
  4. Southwest Annex Route I: Sidewalk, R.O.W. and Retention Pond mowing with one zero turn, truck and trailer. Equipment used to mow  these areas are transported to the job site daily for safety reasons, because of the distance the operator has to travel on a tractor.
  5. Southwest Annex Route II: This route consists of two operators with Sidewalk, ROW and Retention Pond mowing with two zero turn mowers, one truck and trailer.                        

The ROW crew does not maintain homeowners association (HOA) rights of way, subdivisions, commercial property or other private property.

Back to top