Adopt-A-Highway

Help keep Manitowoc County roadsides beautiful!

Adopt-A-Highway helps:

Each qualified group takes responsibility for litter control on approximately a two mile segment of a Manitowoc County highway.
The group picks up litter on this segment at least three times per year between April 1 and November 1.
The Adopt-A-Highway program emphasizes safety. It is important to be very careful when working on the roadsides. For more information, view the Adopt-A-Highway Safety page.
Groups do not work in dangerous areas like medians, bridges, or steep slopes.
Work is permitted until the group notifies the department of their intent to abandon their segment.

Any group organized for some special purpose or task can be a sponsor, except partisan or political groups.
Each group must provide one adult supervisor for every five or six volunteers.
All volunteers must be at least 11 years of age or in the 6th grade. No other persons should be on the work site.
Volunteers working adjacent to 4-lane expressways, freeways, or interstates must be at least 16 years of age.
Please click to view the Manitowoc County Open Sections Available for Adoption

The department furnishes safety vests, portable “people working” signs, the safety training video, trash bags, trash bag pick-up and disposal, and two acknowledgment signs marking your highway.
The department will install the sign announcing your group’s litter control sponsorship.
Names must fit within the maximum of three lines. You will find specific information on the application form.
The WisDOT reserves the right to work with the sponsors in revising group names or acronyms that may be offensive to the public.
No fees will be charged to groups accepted into the Adopt-a-Highway program.

Groups interested in adopting a highway need to identify an open segment of road they would like to adopt from the Manitowoc County Adopt-A-Highway Open Segment List
Contact the Manitowoc County Highway Department for the segment you would like to adopt.
Once your roadway segment is confirmed, fill out an Application Form and send it to the Manitowoc County Adopt-A-Highway Coordinator
Adopt-A-Highway segments are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
Your group may be placed on a waiting list if all available highway segments are already reserved or if the amount of applications received exceeds available funding for signs and supplies.
Once your application is signed and approved by the Department this becomes your permit to work on the right of way and your assigned segment in the Adopt-A-Highway litter control program.
After all group participants have reviewed the safety training video Adopt-A-Highway Safety Tips video and acquired the proper safety gear, vest and “people working” signs, you may begin cleaning your assigned segment.
Approved permits are effective indefinitely or until the department receives a Notice of Abandonment from your group. This notice tells the department your group has decided to cease its clean-up activities. That segment will then be made available to others wishing to Adopt-A-Highway.