A road maintenance depot is a

depot Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Of ...

used by

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

maintenance agencies for storing works equipment and organising maintenance operations. Road maintenance depots can range in size from small

shed A shed is typically a simple, single-storey (though some sheds may have two or more stories and or a loft) roofed structure, often used for storage, for hobby, hobbies, or as a workshop, and typically serving as outbuilding, such as in a bac ...

s storing just a few pieces of equipment, to vast buildings housing computer and

closed-circuit television Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

systems, allowing operators to monitor conditions across the road network. Road maintenance depots carry gear for a number of tasks, including

road works Roadworks, also called road construction or road work, occur when part of the road, or in rare cases, the entire road, has to be occupied for work relating to the road, most often in the case of road surface repairs. In the United States road ...

snow removal Snow removal or snow clearing is the job of removing snow after a snowfall to make travel easier and safer. This is done both by individual households and by governments institutions, and commercial businesses. De-icing and anti-icing De-icin ...

, planting of

road verge A road verge is a strip of groundcover consisting of grass or garden plants, and sometimes also shrubs and trees, located between a roadway and a sidewalk. Verges are known by dozens of other names such as grass strip, nature strip, curb s ...

and

central reservation A median strip, central reservation, roadway median, or traffic median is the reserved area that separates opposing lanes of traffic on divided roadways such as divided highways, dual carriageways, freeways, and motorways. The term also ap ...

s and

storm drain A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), highway drain, surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from i ...

maintenance. Most depots will have limited accommodation facilities for staff who are on-call, particularly during heavy winter storms, when travel between the worker's home and the depot may be restricted. Road maintenance depots also include garages and repair shops for the fleets of vehicles stored within, and large depots keep supplies of fuel and

road salt Road salt (also known as de-icing salt, rock salt, or snow salt) is a salt used mainly as an anti-slip agent in winter road conditions, but also to prevent dust and snow build-up on roads. Various kinds of salts are used as road salt, but calciu ...

for drivers.

Operations

Depots carry a wide range of vehicles to cover most eventualities, depending on the location of the depot; small urban depots carry

street sweeper A street sweeper or street cleaner is a person or machine that cleans streets. People have worked in cities as "sanitation workers" since sanitation and Waste management, waste removal became a priority. A street-sweeping person would use a b ...

vehicles and small

gully emptier {{unreferenced, date=September 2015 A gully emptier (colloquially: "gully sucker") is a type of specialized tank truck with suction gear which can suck wastewater and mud and sludge out of hollows such as the hollows below drain grids in street gut ...

s, while larger rural and motorway-based depots hold fleets of

winter service vehicle A winter service vehicle (WSV), or snow removal vehicle, is a vehicle specially designed or adapted to clear thoroughfares of ice and snow. Winter service vehicles are usually based on a dump truck chassis, with adaptations allowing them to car ...

s and

engineering vehicle Heavy equipment, heavy machinery, earthmovers, construction vehicles, or construction equipment, refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large con ...

s, and often

tow truck A tow truck (also called a wrecker, a breakdown truck, recovery vehicle or a breakdown lorry) is a truck used to move disabled, improperly parked, Vehicle impoundment, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. This may involve recoverin ...

s and breakdown vehicles for rescuing broken down or stranded equipment. Other vehicles commonly kept at depots include

lawnmower A lawn mower (also known as a grass cutter or simply mower, also often spelled lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the ...

sprayer A sprayer is a device used to spray a liquid, where sprayers are commonly used for projection of water, weed killers, crop performance materials, pest maintenance chemicals, as well as manufacturing and production line ingredients. In agricult ...

s and road markers. Along with garages, most depots also have either salt barns or brine tanks, to store de-icing agents for use in winter months, and

filling station A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

s to refuel vehicles, especially those that use red diesel, which is not available at public filling stations. Larger depots have vehicle washes and repair shops to maintain the fleet, and a

cafeteria A cafeteria, called canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a scho ...

and on-call room for workers.

International

Germany

Autobahnmeisterei Tauberbischofsheim-Distelhausen - 2

Road maintenance depots in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

are known as ''Straßenmeisterei'' or ''Autobahnmeisterei''. Responsibility for operating the depot depends on the type of road covered by the

catchment area A catchment area in human geography, is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

of the depot; those that cover the

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

network and major road are owned by the

Federal Government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

, while those that cover more urban roads are operated by the local city administration.

United Kingdom

All public road maintenance depots in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

are owned by the

Highways Agency National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards u ...

or its contractors, although the depot on the privately owned

M6 Toll The M6 Toll, referred to on some signs as the Midland Expressway (originally named the Birmingham Northern Relief Road or BNRR), and stylised as M6toll, connects M6 Junction 3a at the Coleshill Interchange to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton ...

is run by the operators of the road. Most are located along the edge of motorways, and are signposted "Works Exit" or "Works Access Only". These signs are also used to disguise

sliproad In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

s leading to sensitive military institutions such as RAF Welford and to dissuade members of the public from using

emergency evacuation Emergency evacuation is an immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an ongoing threat or a hazard to lives or property. Examples range from the small-scale evacuation of a building due to a storm ...

routes and

short cuts ''Short Cuts'' is a 1993 American comedy-drama film, directed by Robert Altman. Filmed from a screenplay by Altman and Frank Barhydt, it is inspired by nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver. The film is set in Los Angeles, in contr ...

designed for

emergency vehicle An emergency vehicle is a vehicle used by emergency services. Emergency vehicles typically have specialized Emergency vehicle lighting, emergency lighting and Emergency vehicle equipment, vehicle equipment that allow emergency services to reach Ca ...

References

{{Authority control Road infrastructure Engineering vehicles