926 miles of secondary roads consisting of:

        97 miles of Class "B" (dirt) roads

      730 miles of Class "A" (gravel) roads

        99 miles of paved roads

     205 bridges, and literally thousands of field/driveway entrances, drainage crossings, signs, roadside ditches, within the county road right-of-way.

By state law, the Keokuk County Board of Supervisors is required to employ one or more licensed civil engineers to serve as County Engineer.  The Board of Supervisors establishes policies and is to provide adequate funding to properly maintain the secondary road system.

The County Engineer (David Patterson, P.E.) serves as department head for the Keokuk County Highway Department.  The County Engineer determines and employs methods, personnel, and equipment necessary to maintain the secondary road system pursuant to Board policy, sound engineering judgment, and Iowa Code requirements.  All construction and maintenance work on the secondary road system is to be performed under the County Engineer's direction.

A budget and 5 year construction program is prepared by the County Engineer, subject to adoption by the Board of Supervisors and approval by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Over two thirds (2/3) of the Highway Department operating budget is funded by Road Use Tax funds.  Approximately one quarter (1/4) of the budget is funding from local property tax.  Only 7.37% of total property tax revenues go to Highway Department operations (July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010).

The Keokuk County Highway Department employs 24 full time and 3 seasonal employees.  The organization chart is located here.

The County Engineer, Administrative Assistant, and Engineering staff are located on the 1st floor of the Courthouse.  The majority of maintenance staff are based out of the main shop building located in Sigourney.  Eight of the motor grader operators are based in sheds located in the Thornburg, Webster, Kinross, Keota, Richland, Ollie, Hedrick, and Delta areas.  The Highway department also has a storage facility on the east end of Sigourney which includes a sign shed, salt shed, and fueling facility.