Road Hazards

If something on a Walnut Creek street, sidewalk, or trail is broken or unsafe, report it. Agencies fix what they hear about, and a written report creates a record that the problem was known — which matters a great deal if the location is ever studied, redesigned, or litigated.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. The contacts on this page are for non-emergency problems.

This page is for a place. If the problem is a person, see Dangerous Driving. If you were hit, see If You Crash.

On this page

  1. Whose road is it? — work this out first
  2. Something is broken — potholes, sidewalks, signals, signs, trees
  3. Something is badly designed — crossings, bike lanes, signal timing
  4. Tell us too

Whose road is it?

Walnut Creek's city limits are irregular, and several neighborhoods that feel like Walnut Creek are actually unincorporated Contra Costa County. The city cannot fix a county road, and the county cannot fix a city one, so a report sent to the wrong agency usually goes nowhere. Regional trails are neither — they belong to the East Bay Regional Park District.

Two ways to tell a city street from a county road:

  • Look at the street sign. Green street name signs are generally City of Walnut Creek. White signs with black lettering are generally Contra Costa County.
  • Check the map. The city's Zoning Web Map lets you type in an address and see whether the parcel is inside the city limits.

If you are still not sure, send the report to both. Duplicating a report costs you nothing; sending it to the wrong agency costs you the response.

Something is broken

Potholes and pavement damage, sidewalk uplift and obstructions, stoplights, signage, and branches blocking a sidewalk or a sign. This is maintenance, and it goes to whoever maintains the road.

Whose road Report to
City street Walnut Creek SeeClickFix — timestamps your report, gives you a tracking number, and takes a photo
County road Contra Costa Public Works Maintenance, 925-313-7000. After hours, 925-646-2441. Also a service request form and the Mobile Citizen app
Regional trail EBRPD Park Watch Report, or dispatch on 510-881-1833

Attach a photo and a specific location whenever you can. "Northeast corner of Ygnacio Valley Road and Oak Grove Road" is far more actionable than "near the shopping center." On a trail, give the nearest cross street or mile marker — the Iron Horse runs 32 miles, so the trail name alone will not find it. Where there is no landmark, right-click the spot in Google Maps to copy its coordinates.

Something is badly designed

A pothole is a maintenance request. A road that is designed dangerously — a crossing with no visibility, a bike lane that disappears into a merge, a signal that never gives people time to cross — is a different problem, and it goes to engineers rather than maintenance crews.

Send these by email so there is a written record, and keep a copy.

Whose road Send to
City street dutytraffic@walnut-creek.org
County road admin@pw.cccounty.us, copying your District 4 Supervisor's office (below)
Regional trail EBRPD, copying John Mercurio (jmercurio@ebparks.org), who represents Walnut Creek in Ward 6

District 4 Supervisor's office

Staff there track constituent road complaints and can push a request that Public Works has not acted on.

Walnut Creek is in District 4, along with Clayton, Concord, Pleasant Hill, and the unincorporated Contra Costa Centre and Morgan Territory. A few unincorporated pockets near Walnut Creek sit in other districts; the Board of Supervisors directory will point you to the right one.

Tell us too

Reporting to the agency is what gets a specific problem fixed. Telling us is what helps us see the pattern — the intersections that generate complaint after complaint are the ones we take to the city.

Add it to our map

If it does not fit on the map, send us a message and paste in what you sent the agency.