County highway departments have the responsibility of not only performing routine maintenance activities, such as crack filling and snow plowing activities on county trunk highways, but also for building pavement structures, replacing worn out pavement, and improving highways to the appropriate design standards for the residents and motorists that use the county trunk highway system.  The pavement treatments that are commonly used are chip sealing, thin asphalt overlays, structural overlays, pavement recycling with new asphalt pavement, and reconstruction.

Chippewa County funds these types of improvements by utilizing local tax levy, sales tax, borrowing, the WI Local Roads Improvement Programs (LRIP), and Federal Aid programs such as STP-rural and STP-urban. The Federal programs can fund up to 80% of the project costs and the State programs can fund up to 50% of the project costs. Projects selected for Federal and State funding are based upon funding availability, entitlement balances, project location, average daily traffic, roadway classification, and other criteria.

All improvements made on the county trunk highway system must comply with various rules and regulations as set forth in the Wisconsin Statutes.  The Department uses the Wis. Stats., the Facilities Development Manual (FDM), the WisDOT Construction Specification Standards, and many other manuals and technical reference books to insure that improvements made on the county trunk highway system are meeting the State/Federal requirements.