General Info

The main County shop and office is located at 1700 N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203. The County Engineer’s office as well as the Road Superintendent’s office is located at this location. This is a full service shop that performs maintenance and repairs of all types and houses much of the equipment used to maintain the county and township road system within Grand Forks County.

The office hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In addition to the Grand Forks shop, there are ten other satellite locations where equipment is located. These other locations are Manvel, Gilby, Inkster, Niagara, Larimore, Emerado, Thompson, Reynolds, Holmes and Northwood. These facilities house motor graders, snow equipment and other maintenance items. There is no office staff at these facilities and often are unattended as employees are usually working outside the shops on the roads of other projects.

The Highway Department employs 28 regular full time employees year round. Seasonal employees are utilized as needed. The staff consists of one county engineer, one superintendent, one cost account coordinator, one office/project coordinator, two equipment mechanics, and twenty-two equipment operators of which twelve are primarily dedicated to motor graders.

Funding: Some residents have the understanding that the Highway Department is funded solely by property tax. The fact is that the department is funded three ways. The primary source of funding is through the state gas tax, or motor fuels tax and makes up approximately 50% of total revenue. The secondary source of revenue comes from property tax and makes up approximately 40% of total revenue. The tertiary source of revenue comes from federal aid or federal gas tax and makes up the remaining 10% of total revenue. Funding levels do vary from year to year.

Grand Forks County covers 1,438 square miles and consists of 41 townships, making it the 17th largest County out of 53 in North Dakota. The 2015 population of the County is estimated to be about 71,000, making it the third most populated County in North Dakota.

The Grand Forks County Highway Department is responsible for planning, design, construction, and maintenance of the highways and bridges on the County highway system. The County system consists of 544 miles of roadway, of which 262 miles are gravel and 282 are paved. The townships certify 1,741 miles of roadway. In addition to maintaining the bridges and culverts on the County system, the Highway Department also maintains all bridges and culverts 48-inches in diameter and larger on the Township system. Total number of major bridges (20-feet in length or greater) maintained is 279 structures. Total number of culverts and bridges maintained is between 800 and 850.