The Streets Department is responsible for maintaining and servicing the City of Sulphur’s street and drainage systems. These services include utility cuts, potholes, grass, limb pickup, street sweeping, traffic lights, culvert cleaning, and drain repairs.

Streets Maintenance & Services

Utility cuts

Typically occur when a water leak or sewer maintenance has occurred where the street, driveway or yard had to be removed to repair the issue. Normally, water or sewer crews will leave a barricade in the area until the utility crew can come back and repair. The utility cut will normally be repaired in approximately two (2) weeks after the initial repair was made. Dress ups may occur in-between where the utility cut is refilled an aggregate material.

Potholes

Potholes are maintained by the same crew that repairs utility cuts. Once a pothole is called into the Maintenance Department, the utility crew will go out and assess. A work order will be generated to fix the pothole. The crew if a small fix should be able to do within the same day, if it is a larger scale pothole a barricade will be placed, or rock placed in the pothole until material can be ordered to fix the repair. If an asphalt road the utility crew will use the Falcon Hot Box which holds a capacity of 30 gallons to repair the asphalt patch in a faster timeframe.

Street sweeping

The Streets department has two (2) street sweepers a 2016 Freightliner Sweeper and a 2007 Vacall Sweeper. Once the work order is placed in the system after a report is made, it will be assigned to a driver who will be out within the next 24-48 hours to sweep the street.

Traffic Signals

The department utilizes a 2012 Bucket Boom Truck to change bulbs, reset lights, and remove and replace damaged hardware. All streets within the City limits are maintained by the City of Sulphur except for Napoleon (Hwy 90), Cities Service Highway (Hwy 108) and Beglis Parkway (Hwy 27). Traffic lights that are on or intersect the three (3) streets listed above are maintained by LADOTD. Once a traffic light is reported a work order is generated and someone is called out the same day to check and repair. If the repair cannot occur due to hardware having to be ordered the intersection may be turned into a 4 way stop until repair is made.

Grounds/Beautification

The City of Sulphur Grounds Maintenance consists of three (3) grounds crew and one (1) truck driver/operator. The grass crews are responsible for making sure all buildings and properties owned by the City of Sulphur are maintained. This includes are Roselawn Cemetery, median strip on city streets, sidewalks, the Pavilion area at the Grove, lift stations etc.  Along with cutting the grass, they are responsible for picking up any littering in the areas that they are cutting. Each crew is equipped with a truck, trailer, ride on lawnmower, weed eaters and blowers. The lawnmower is operated by the foreman of the crew and the laborers utilize the weed eaters and blowers. The driver is responsible for operating the John Deere Slope mower that is utilized to mow the sides of major streets and where ditches are extremely deep. In the colder months are grass crews are responsible for the setup of the Christmas tree and decorations that occur at the Grove along with SPAR and for decorations at City Buildings. Crews normally start setting up the week of Thanksgiving until finished.

Limb pickup

Limb/debris pickup service is provided by the City of Sulphur. The City has two (2) limb grapple trucks that are utilized and at least one (1) truck runs every day except in inclement weather. If you have limbs at the road, we ask that you call in so the address can be added to list given to drivers. Summer months are the peak time for limb pickup, and it may be 2 to 3 weeks before limbs are serviced. We ask that limbs not exceed six (6) feet in length and four (4) inches in diameter. Limbs need to be stacked neatly at the road and no trash or construction debris can be mixed in with the limbs. If limbs are not serviceable a green tag will be placed on the limbs with the reason of non-pickup. Once the reason is corrected you can call the maintenance department so the driver can go back out to service. 

Ditches

are maintained by the Maintenance Department for drainage issues. Grass in the ditches shall be maintained by the homeowner unless extremely deep. If you notice that the ditches are not draining, you can report to the maintenance department. The maintenance department will issue a work order for the ditch crew to go on site to shoot elevation as needed to dig the ditch. A Dottie will have to be called for all jobs that require digging with a machine. Utility locators normally have 48 ours to mark their lines and the City has two weeks from the date of the Dottie beginning to swipe or dig the ditches. Existing culverts that are full of debris can be reported for the ditch crew to go out and blow out the culvert with our 2017 Freightliner Vacuum Pressure Truck.

Culverts

Culverts are no longer installed by the City of Sulphur. If you would like to install a culvert you will have to buy a culvert permit from the City’s Inspections Department. Click here to view the document.

Once the culvert permit is paid for at Inspections, they will send the information to the Maintenance Department, Street Supervisor will go out and access what materials you will need and will contact you with the information. It is the property owner’s responsibility to buy the material needed and to hire someone to install. Before the contractor can backfill, the Maintenance Department will need to be called so the Supervisor can go back and inspect and then once approved contractor can backfill.

Storm Drains

Storm drains are cleaned on a routine schedule however, when inclement weather is forecast for this area grass crews and ditches crews begin days ahead cleaning drains and checking ditches for obstructions. On the day the inclement weather is proposed to hit the area, city maintenance crews are strictly on drains with crews being assigned specific areas to maintain in case loose debris in yards is to float and block storm drains. If you see a blocked storm drain, damaged storm drains or drain lid missing please contact the Maintenance Department so crews can be dispatched. The City has ordinances in effect to help with stormwater management please see link. https://library.municode.com/la/sulphur/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH25DR

Storm Drains can have cave ins due to collars on pipes breaking. If you notice a cave in the front yard by a storm drain, please contact the Maintenance Department. The Ditch crew will investigate and if determined to be a drain cave in a ticket will be generated for repair and a Dottie called in. Once the Dottie becomes effective the crew has up to two (2) weeks to repair. The cave in will be roped off with stakes and orange ribbon to indicate not to step in that area.

Complaints

Please remember when calling the Maintenance Department at 337-527-4583 to report a concern that we will need a location address or intersection, name, phone number, and how long the issue has been occurring or any other details that can be provided.