Roads & Sidewalks

The Highway Division performs the following functions

• Maintains all City streets and sidewalks
• Maintains municipal parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities
• Maintains all municipal buildings
• Maintains the City vehicle and equipment fleet
• Performs snow removal operations

Complete Streets

The Department of Public Works is nearing completion of 2019 work on several Complete Streets initiatives to advance the City’s Complete Streets Policy adopted in October 2013. The Policy came out of extensive discussions with residents and expert advisors as to how best adopt the vision of the City of Portsmouth 2005 Master Plan.

In 2014 the Portsmouth Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan built upon this vision, mapping pedestrian and bicycle priority network connections, and included a toolkit of design solutions to improve safe access for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transportation users of all ages and abilities. Then the 2017 Complete Streets Guidelines took the vision further, formalizing a classification scheme, identifying design options, and outlines user needs for every street in the City of Portsmouth. Each project in the Neighborhood Traffic Calming program goes through three phases of review, starting with a neighborhood petition and traffic monitoring.

The Department of Public Works develops implementation plans for the Complete Streets guidelines in conjunction with other street infrastructure work including water and sewer pipe installation, traffic-calming designs, beautification and repaving to achieve the City Policy directive “to create safer, more accessible streets for all users,” and to use the best and latest design standards available.

For more information about specific Complete Streets projects now underway, click here.