Street Maintenance

Department of Public Service crews perform a variety of tasks, including snow and ice control, traffic sign and pavement marking/painting, traffic signal repair, pothole repair, roadside berming and mowing, street tree pruning and dead animal pickup.  Crews also responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the street pavement within city limits.

New Albany manages an annual crack sealing program. Crack sealing is a preventive maintenance treatment that seals pavement cracks, preventing further deterioration of the street. Studies indicate that crack sealing is a cost effective method in extending the life of pavement, particularly when compared to cracks that are not sealed.

Street Sweeping

This program, which started in 2004, involves performing a complete sweep of all city streets the last week of each month.  Street sweeping provides two primary benefits.   The more obvious benefit is the removal of paper, leaves and other visible debris that collect in the gutters (motorized street sweeping removes an average of 220,000 pounds of debris from the street before it goes into the storm drains). If not collected, this debris can block storm water structures, causing localized flooding during heavy rains.

An equally important but less visible benefit is the removal of metal particles and other hazardous waste products left by passing vehicles. Although virtually invisible, these particles can be extremely harmful to fish and other wildlife if they reach our lakes, ponds, creeks, streams and rivers. Street sweeping is an effective method of removing both the large and microscopic pollutants that collect on city streets. This sweeping also serves as one of our Best Management Practices (BMP) to control and improve water quality.

Some steps residents can take to help city crews protect our vital watershed and keep streets clean include picking up litter and other debris around storm drains and cleaning up spilled household and automotive fluids.

Please keep vehicles off the street during sweep week (one parked car leads to nearly three car lengths of space that cannot be swept).