GROVELAND TWP. – Robins sing, warm air is the norm, and daffodils appear, welcome signs spring has sprung. Yet one less so popular spring attribute found in rural communities with gravel roads has also arrived.
Mud, and plenty of it.
In areas of Groveland Township dominated by low lying wetlands, a recent quick spring thaw following a hard winter has triggered drainage problems turning many gravel roadways into a soupy quagmire of goo.
“Right now in Groveland Township the roads are terrible,” said Craig Bryson, Oakland County Road Commission public information officer. “The hard, fast thaw like we had this past week create the worst possible conditions for gravel roads.”
The most prominent cause of worsening road condition in spring is the frozen ground not being able to absorb runoff water from melted snow. “The ground is still frozen this early in the season, even five to six inches down,” Bryson said. “When a fast thaws hits only an inch or two of the ground begins to thaw, which means the ground cannot absorb excess water until all the frost comes out.”
The Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) monitors road conditions problems in a variety of ways including physically driving the roadways to monitor problems, logging resident phone calls via the road condition hotline and a working knowledge of area terrain near roadways.
Willis Greer, RCOC foreman at the Davisburg garage which maintains Groveland Township roads, in addition to sections of Bird and Perryville roads devotes much of his work force to keeping roads passable in spring months.
“Typically our first response to a road which is in poor condition is to truck in two to three inch limestone pieces to bad and sinking areas,” Greer said. “If the areas get very bad, we will temporarily close a road until we can bring in larger pieces of limestone.”
Another way in which the RCOC attempts to reduce bad road conditions is by enforcing frost laws, or a temporary reduction in allowable road weight as enforced by the county’s weightmaster. These restrictions however, do not apply to passenger vehicles, but to freight and multiple axle trucks. The current frost laws in Oakland County are set at 11,700 pounds for a single axle vehicle, and 16,900 pounds for tandem axle vehicles.
“We are constantly running these roads and are aware of problem areas in need of repair,” said Greer. “In addition to our basic fixes, Groveland Township participates in our gravel program each year, and also in our Gravel Road Improvement Program (GRIP), which we do once a year, but with a heavy winter like we had it is tough to make any permanent fixes to these gravel roads.”
“The GRIP program is a program for secondary road repair,” Groveland Township Supervisor Bob DePalma said. “The program is designed to have a township buy its own gravel, and the road commission will provide the labor to spread it at no cost. The cost is typically $12,000 per mile. In Groveland we try and have three miles of gravel laid on secondary roads each year.”
In the early part of any given year, the road commission will provide townships and municipalities with a list of roads that are in the worst shape, and give them the opportunity to choose the sections of road they would like gravel dumped on. “It is usually around April when the Township board will evaluate which roads are in need and choose which three miles of road we would like covered in that year,” DePalma said.
In addition to the secondary road repair, Oakland County maintains the gravel upkeep of primary roads at no cost to the township.
“Overall, Groveland Township roads remain very well maintained in this county,” Greer said.
Any resident who has questions or concerns about specific roads can contact RCOC toll free at (877) 858-4804 or email at www.rcocweb.org.