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DOT maintenance director explains mowing schedule, sight-line responsibilities for state roads
Summary
At the July 24 RiverCOG meeting, CT DOT District 2 Maintenance Director Owen McClure said the DOT mows most state rights-of-way about twice a year for erosion control, clarified that property owners/towns are typically responsible for sight lines at private-drive and town-road intersections with state roads, and urged officials to use DOT customer care or district supervisors for urgent safety concerns.
Owen McClure, Connecticut Department of Transportation’s District 2 Maintenance Director, told the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments on July 24 that the DOT’s mowing program generally cuts rights-of-way twice per year and is primarily intended for erosion control, not routine aesthetics or every constituent complaint. “We try to twice a year, sometime in the middle of the season and then at the end of the season in October,” McClure said.
McClure said the state is responsible for sight lines on state-owned roads, but private-drive and town-road intersections with state routes are generally the property owner’s or town’s responsibility under state statute, with safety exceptions. “On state roads, we are 100% responsible for those sight lines,” he added, while acknowledging that supervisors will respond rapidly if a local official flags a credible safety hazard.
Town officials pressed DOT about reasonable response times after repeated complaints. McClure said routine mowing requests follow the twice-year schedule—calls in late May may not be addressed until July and calls in September may wait until end-of-season work—but that supervisors will reassign crews for verified safety priorities. He outlined district contacts and asked officials to use district supervisors or the DOT customer-care center so crews and encroachment-permit agents can triage work.
The session also covered temporary signage and political signs: McClure said DOT crews remove illegal right-of-way encroachments and large signs at state intersections, but generally do not remove signs clearly located in a homeowner’s yard. He described improvements to quieter rumble-strip designs and noted Eastern Connecticut’s annual paving planning, adding that the district receives approximately $30 million for paving in the region and distributes that work in a December–January planning window.
Why it matters: Towns repeatedly contact DOT about sight-line and mowing concerns. McClure’s presentation clarified which responsibilities fall to the state, which fall to landowners or towns, and how municipal officials should escalate safety issues to get faster responses.
Looking ahead: McClure invited municipal officials to email specific concerns and offered his contact (eoin.mcclure@ct.gov) and said district staff can meet with local public-works officials to coordinate mowing, paving and safety work.
