In the unincorporated areas of a county, a county generally has the responsibility to maintain public roadways that have not been designated state highways.? This maintenance can take various forms, such as fixing potholes in the roadway, clearing the roadway of obstructions, or ensuring that vegetation does not obstruct driver's sightlines.

?

Counties must employ a county road engineer who is responsible for constructing, altering, repairing, and maintaining these roads.? The county engineer is required to maintain records related to county roads, including documents, petitions, surveys, repairs, and other records needed for a complete history of any given road.? Other records related to road maintenance activities must be kept as required by applicable record retention schedules. ?A state Records Committee, comprised of the Washington State Archivist, an appointee of the Attorney General, and an appointee of the Director of Financial Management, determines general records retention schedules.? Local governments may establish a different schedule with the approval of the state Local Records Committee.? This Committee consists of the Archivist, an appointee of the Attorney General, and an appointee of the State Auditor.?

?

Under general records retention schedules, county engineer records retained to complete the history of a road must be maintained permanently.? Records related to environmental monitoring must be retained for 30 years, and then transferred to the State Archives for possible further retention.? Records related to major maintenance or maintenance regulated by local, state, or federal regulations must be maintained for six years, while records related to minor unregulated maintenance must be retained for three years.

Counties must collect and retain records of any maintenance or construction activity that is undertaken by the county on a county road that is on or adjacent to noncounty property.? At a minimum, these records must include the amount of soil, trees, shrubs, gravel, or other natural organic material that was removed during a maintenance or construction activity, if the amount of material removed would be reasonably noticeable to the naked eye without a detailed examination.? If sufficient such material was removed, then the records must also indicate where it was removed to, how it was reused or disposed of, and the results of any contaminants testing that was conducted on the material.