Maintenance & Operations Division

What We Do

The City of Lake Elsinore's Street Maintenance Division is part of the City's Public Works Department. The Street Maintenance Division is responsible for the operation and maintenance of roads, sidewalks, storm drains, traffic signals, street lights, alleys, dirt streets, street sweeping, streetscapes, and street signs, lake and beach maintenance.

Several maintenance programs are in place and are overseen by the Division. These programs provide a systematic approach to providing the community a quality service level. Following is a brief description of each work maintenance program.

Standby Program

An employee standby program is in place to ensure that Public Works Staff are available for after hour emergencies. Employees rotate on call duty every week. An employee who is on call is provided a cell phone that must be carried at all times. The employee is required to respond within a one hour window.

Street Signs

The Street Division installs and maintains approximately 3,000 traffic signs and street name signs. All new signs that are installed are covered with a special coating to allow for the cleaning of graffiti without smearing the original sign paint. Also, the sign shop recycles all of our old aluminum signs. Some signs are recovered, lettered, and used again, while damaged signs are sent to a recycling center for melt down. To report a problem with a street signs please go to Alert LE.

Street Lights

In 2019, the City of Lake Elsinore completed the purchase and acquisition of 3,611 street lights within the City from Southern California Edison (SCE). SCE now only maintains a small number of streetlights in the City. One of the benefits of owning street lights is that the City can use them for municipal purposes such as adding cameras and other technologies that can benefit the public and the City.

While regular streetlight inspections are conducted to identify street lights that have burnt out in the City, residents are urged to report street light outages in our community. All City-owned streetlights are maintained and repaired by a regional contractor, Siemens.

To report street light outages or for street light service requests, please call Siemens' Riverside County Office at 951-784-6600 or report online. Both options are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Street light outages for poles that are owned by SCE will be reported appropriately so that their repair crews can make the necessary repairs.

Storm Drains

The City of Lake Elsinore maintains a variety of storm drain structures, drainage pipes, concrete channels, and dirt drainage ditches. The street division is responsible for the inspection and maintenance of the storm drain system. This includes repairing grates, clearing blocked drainpipes, and cleaning debris from the storm drain structures. Our goal is to limit the number of flooding incidents by keeping the drains clear with regular maintenance and cleaning. To report a problem with a storm drains please go to Alert LE.

Storm drains are not connected to the sewage treatment plant. Ultimately they all eventually drain to the lake. Therefor it is important that nothing is allowed to flow into the storm drain system but normal run off water.

Curb, Gutter, and Sidewalks

The purpose of the curb, gutter, and sidewalk repair program is to repair the city's current inventory of curb, gutter, and sidewalks. The goal of the program is to eliminate hazardous conditions and minimize the possibility of injury to residents due to cracks and tripping hazards. The current sidewalk inventory totals approximately 7,18,619 square feet. The total curb and gutter inventory totals approximately 1,436,723 linear feet.

Dirt Street Dust Control Program

This program consists of grading, ripping, and compacting existing soil and furnishing and placing dust control agent such as magnesium chloride.

Road Shoulder Herbicide Application Program

Dirt road shoulders located within the City right-of-way require herbicide treatment to control vegetation. Four applications are applied consisting of two post-emergent applications to kill weeds that have germinated and two pre-emergent applications as a preventative measure to keep seed germination to a minimal.

Pavement Striping and Marking Program

The Street Striping and Marking Program consists of repainting existing crosswalks, legends, centerline and other striping and markings on asphalt pavement. Currently all striping and markings are painted once per year in the fall to ensure visibility during increment weather.

Crack Seal Program

Crack Sealing is a preventive maintenance program. The purpose of the crack seal program is to seal cracks in asphalt pavement to prevent the intrusion of water into the crack and ultimately into the base layer of the road causing road failure.

Potholes

The Street Maintenance Division's goal is to fix all potholes known to us as soon as possible. You can help by reporting potholes when you see them. To report a pothole via Alert LE you can contact us at the following phone numbers: Phone: 951-674-5170

Emergency Response Training

With the help of the Riverside County Office of Emergency Services all City Public Works staff receive emergency response training. Training includes SEMS/NIMS training. SEMS/NIMS is an acronym for Standard Emergency Management System and National Incident Management. SEMS/NIMS is a set of procedural guidelines developed by the State of California and U.S. Government that are to be used during a disaster emergency.

Work Zone Safety Training

All Public Works Staff are trained and certified by the Traffic Safety Association in work zone safety. It is important to us that our staff has a safe work environment.

Equipment Operation Training

A training program is in place to ensure that all Public Works employees are properly trained to safely operate all of our equipment.