Posted on 06/13/2009 12:18:43 PM PDT by magellan
As goes Michigan's crumbling economy, so go some once-paved rural roads now being turned back into gravel.
About a quarter of the state's county road agencies largely left out of the federal stimulus package, which focuses on highways and other major thoroughfares, say they can't afford some costly repaving projects and have crushed up deteriorating roads.
Montcalm County alone estimates it saved nearly $900,000 by converting almost 10 miles of pothole-plagued pavement into gravel this spring.
Reverting to gravel on low-traffic roads has been done to some degree for years and long-term savings and maintenance costs vary widely. But it can be an attractive option for municipalities seeking to save money up front and it's recently been done in a few other states, including Indiana and Vermont.
More than 20 of the 83 counties in Michigan, home to the nation's highest unemployment rate for much of the past four years, have turned rural roads back to gravel with no immediate plans to repave, according to the County Road Association of Michigan. About 50 miles have been reverted in the last three years.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
BTW, I've managed to drive around all these places several times over the years, so I'm familiar with this stuff. There's a recent Discover presentation of how the glaciers ground down Michigan and created the Great Lakes except for Ontario and Superior, and I'm drawing on that to describe subsurface conditions. Rest assured, there's limestone not too far below those sand and gravel deposits. If it were worthwhile they could bulldoze the gravel out of the way and get at the stone.
I suspect it's cheaper to buy crushed rock from Indiana, Illinois or Ohio though. (Ground water table problems are far different).
Why should we give the government control of something that has been demonstrated to done better and more efficiently by the private sector?
After several decades of such treatment a lightly traveled road will begin to take on the appearance of having been paved.
We have several such roads near this neighborhood in Virginia.
The legacy of Democrat rule: Cities are bulldozed and roads returned to dusty trails.
Democrats have promised to do for the auto industry what they have done for Michigan.
It all makes sense a Crack Head claiming to be President anything is possible.
I probably should have explained that I lived in Western Michigan (Kent & Ottawa county, just south and west of Montcalm Counted mentioned in the article) for 30+ years. When I was a teenager my parents had a dirt/gravel driveway. Less than a quarter mile down the road it turned from a pea gravel “paved” road to gravel. The roads were all gravel for miles and miles. I rode the school bus and my bicycle on these roads a lot. Smooth or pleasant were not words anyone woud ever use to describe them.
There are water table challenges there, too. Our house well was at 15 feet. That was the second water. I’ve been told much of the reason that Dutch immigrants settled in the Holland, Michigan area is because the wet conditions were much like those where they had lived in the Netherlands. They were familiar with how to manage the water whereas other immigrants were not.
There are gravel pits in Western Michigan. Rock is highly prized, but NOT inexpensive (compared, at least, to Oklahoma where I live now).
Thank you both for your points. Looking forward and looking at past history can help clarify things going on now.
Old oil was sprayed on gravel roads. Consequently your car would get covered with oil and then when you drove down a road that wsn’t oiled, the dust would roll up and stick onto your oily car. Nice! They kind of stopped doing that when it was discoveed that counties were using oil from old electrical equipment that was loaded with PCBs. So we’re bring back dirty, oily, cancering causing cars... thanks 0bama!!!
Wow. Starnesville, Mich is a real place after all.
It seems as if the road map for this administration was taken directly from the book.
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
About a quarter of the state's county road agencies largely left out of the federal stimulus package, which focuses on highways and other major thoroughfares, say they can't afford some costly repaving projects and have crushed up deteriorating roads. Montcalm County alone estimates it saved nearly $900,000 by converting almost 10 miles of pothole-plagued pavement into gravel this spring.Well of course, what would rural areas filled with hardworking white country folk need with stimulus money? ;') Thanks grellis.
State roads = state upkeep
county roads=responsibility of county
Every county in Michigan as a County Road Commission. They are a bitch to deal with...I didn't want to deal with them when I put up my barn/garage so you can drive to the barn from my driveway . To make a driveway apron that touches the county roads, forget it because of cost and red-tape...
Because roads and other related infrastructure are for the greater public. Do you want to pay tolls every few miles or see the names of streets get replaced with more untypical and profane ones? See a bunch of NIMBY types protest roads in their area?
But that spending is more closer to home and will be more accountable to voters. Gas tax revenues to the feds goes into a bottomless black hole.
>>I can’t wait for Detroit to get gravel roads.<<
The suburbs of Detroit already have them. I know, I’m here.
It was a shock to move from the nice burbs of Cleveland to the gravel roads with no sidewalks of Detroit.
I’m not talking country roads either. Mapquest Redford, MI. It butts up against Detroit and has gravel roads.
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