Gravel Road Maintenance
Fact: 850 of the 2,600 miles of RCOC's county roads are not
paved and they won't be for years
People call them "dirt," but unpaved roads really are gravel (plus
sand and clay).
 Gravel
roads can cause as much trouble for drivers as they do for the Road
Commission for Oakland County (RCOC). Drainage problems are common
because many of today's gravel roads evolved from trails or cattle
paths and were not designed by engineers.
Summer Maintenance
Summer means applying extra gravel, mowing shoulders, ditching,
cleaning culverts and grading. It can also mean dusty gravel roads.
For less dust and a better road surface, RCOC's Dust Control Program
crews spray calcium chloride brine four times throughout the summer's
dust season on some gravel roads.
Lower cost brine from Road Commission wells has made the dust-control
program self-supporting (RCOC no longer has to buy chloride brine
as it once did). To find out if your community pays for road chloriding
(many do), call the Department of Citizen Services at (877) 858-4804.
In non-participating areas, residents can pay to have chloriding
performed.
Grading smooths gravel roads. However, it also breaks up the chlorided
surface and creates dust, so it is performed about every four to
five weeks. A safety concern may mean grading sooner.
Winter Maintenance
Gravel roads can be troublesome in winter. Frozen ground cannot
be graded, and snow or ice removal and snow plowing are all more
difficult. More gravel can be applied for safety. Sand is spread
on curves and corners for traction. Salt cannot be used on gravel
roads because it soaks in and will not bond to the gravel surface
to make an ice-melting "brine."
Snow plowing is performed on a priority basis similar to paved
roads. Check here for more information
regarding snow removal.
Gravel Road Paving
 Paving
solves many gravel road problems, but lack of funding prevents RCOC
from paving large amounts of gravel roadway. Although more people
are moving to rural areas with gravel roads (increasing traffic
and maintenance), their roads still serve fewer people than paved
roads. Without an increase in funding, pothole patching, winter
maintenance, and safety improvements on higher-traffic paved roads
will be the priority -- and many gravel roads will remain unpaved.
This frustrates some ex-city dwellers. To them "the country" has
meant dust, ruts, and being last for road services. They want roads
paved (or maintained as if they were).
Others -- concerned about more traffic or the loss of trees --
oppose paving, even if money is available.
Planners say that gravel roads should be paved when traffic exceeds
500 cars a day (maintenance is more costly and less effective at
higher traffic volumes).
If, by 2004, growth continues to exceed road revenues in Oakland
County, and people keep moving to rural areas, 120 miles of county
gravel roads will need paving. Cost: at least $144 million (paving
is costly in Oakland County -- lakes and wetlands create such soil
problems that paving a mile of primary gravel road costs an average
of $1.2 million).
There are no gravel roads in newer subdivisions. For over 30 years,
developers have been required to pave subdivision streets. Some
have also paid to pave roads to their developments.
For more information view our Gravel Roads publication:
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