County roads in Ohio

County Roads
Three of the most common county road marker designs in Ohio
System information
Maintained by Ohio county highway departments
Length:	29,088 mi (46,813 km)
Formed:	February 17, 1804
System links
County roads in Ohio

County roads in Ohio comprise 29,088 center line miles (46,813 km), making up 24% of the state's public roadways as of April 2015^[update].Ohio state law delegates the maintenance and designation of these county roads to the county commissioners and highway departments of its 88 counties. Each county has distinct construction, signage, and naming practices for the roads under its jurisdiction. Within each county, townships maintain separate township road networks under the advice of the county engineer.

A public, non-state-maintained road must meet at least one of the following conditions in order for the county board of commissioners to have authority over it:

The county is not responsible for any roads within the corporation limits of a city or village. When the state abandons a state highway, any right of way outside corporation limits reverts to county or township control.

Generally, county road rights of way are required to be at least 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, allowing for two lanes of traffic, although rights of way as narrow as 20 feet (6.1 m) may be allowed for one-lane roads under a grandfather clause. Before 1915, the law that regulated the width of county roads changed frequently, at times imposing a maximum width of 60 or 66 feet (18 or 20 m).

A 2012 study by the County Engineers Association of Ohio (CEAO) found that 1,619 miles (2,606 km) of county roads are resurfaced annually, from a combined budget of $229 million for county road maintenance and bridge replacement. In 1997, the CEAO reported that 8% of county roads were unpaved, and that county roads were resurfaced every 17 years on average.

The maximum speed limit for an undivided county road is 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) in an unincorporated area. Within municipal corporation limits, the speed limit may be lower based on land use. Counties differ on whether all-terrain vehicles are allowed to be ridden on county roads.