Filling pavement cracks and performing other non-emergency repairs along state highways will be ignored the rest of this year by Columbia County's Highway Department by order of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

The order is one of seven directives handed down by the DOT to the highway departments of all 72 Wisconsin counties. The measures ask for the county highway departments to focus more on maintenance work specifically related to safety, and less on work that mainly addresses how the highways look.

Columbia County Highway Commissioner Kurt Dey presented the list of directives to the Columbia County Board's highway committee Thursday. This was the committee's first chance to view the entire list and discuss the measures.

Dey told the committee he understands the limits on county highway workers imposed by the DOT in May as being mainly for budgetary reasons.

The DOT's limitations on preventive maintenance related to pavement caused the biggest reaction among committee members.

The measure asks that activities such as routine crack sealing and non-emergency concrete repair for preventive maintenance should not be undertaken as routine maintenance for the rest of the year.

The DOT said, in a letter to all 72 county highway commissioners in May and given to highway committee members Thursday, that this type of preventative maintenance "does not meet the threshold for routine maintenance priorities."

Andy Ross of Poynette, highway committee chairman, said he believes that not allowing the highway department to perform routine maintenance on the county's state and federal roads more than likely will hurt the life of the roads.

"Putting maintenance off just costs you more later," Ross said. "We'll just end up with a bunch of (county Highway) CXs across the county."

A section of Highway CX, from Portage to the Marquette County line, was reconstructed this spring to fix a rough and bumpy road that got even worse in times of major moisture and high temperatures.

The project, which was completed in mid-May, cost about $1.4 million, of which $213,510 came from the state's County Highway Improvement Project, from money allocated to Columbia County after another county couldn't use it.

The other directives include:

• Not mowing along the rights-of-way for state and federal highways, except at corners where visibility is threatened.

• Highway workers are prohibited from picking up litter along roads more than once in the spring. This includes litter on the lanes of traffic. Dey said his department is required to remove items from traffic lanes, but they can only put them on the side of the road. "You can't throw them into the truck, because it's considered litter," he said.

• Ensuring proper security (brightly colored vests for workers, signs warning motorists of road work) in construction zones and making sure that road shoulder drop-offs aren't too steep.

• Highway crews' surveillance of roads, to check for things such as small potholes, broken pieces of tires and dead animals in the right-of-way, was formerly done weekly. Now it's limited to twice a month. However, crews will respond to a cleanup issue if someone calls in, Dey said.

• County highway departments should concentrate their road maintenance activities on higher priority items such as shoulder work, pothole patching, and items directly affecting safety, including repair of damaged safety apparatuses and signs.

Dey said that in order for the county to continue to receive funds and projects from the DOT, they must abide by the DOT's directives. All 72 counties in the state are being asked to obey the same guidelines.