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Donald R. Huff,
Chairman
Eugene S. Fleming, Vice Chairman
Jack Demming, Member
Michael A. Roper, Managing Director
Robert M. Tholl, Office Manager |
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Gravel Roads
For those of you living on a gravel road, there is no immediate relief.
In the summer it is bumpy and dusty, in the winter it is slippery and
the last to be plowed and in the Spring it is like mud soup. Sound
familiar? A solution of course is pavement but even that has its
drawbacks as it tends to increase the amount of traffic on the road as
well as speeds.
Smoothing out bumpy roads requires grading with a blade truck or a motor
grader. This grading is usually done after a rain because then the road
is soft enough for us to smooth it out. When dry, the clay becomes
compacted and we are not able to cut down into the hard surface and any
that is removed will not stick in the holes. Sometimes in the spring
this clay makes the roads slippery. It is a hard job to get the right
balance of clay, stone and sand on a gravel road. Too little clay and
the road quickly develops sand holes and soft spots, too much clay and
the road is slippery every time it rains. Heavily traveled roads are
difficult to maintain. Generally a gravel road holds up pretty good with
up to 100 cars per day, over that and we have problems.
Potholes in gravel roads can be graded out if minor, but the larger ones
must have gravel put in them. We spend a good share of the Spring,
Summer and Fall hauling gravel from our pits to patch gravel roads. If
temporary truck traffic tears a road up, the truckers will frequently
have the road repaired if we ask them to.
We spread 242,000 gallons of brine on gravel Roads in 2000. This has two
purposes, it helps to hold the surface together and of course reduces
the dust. We get our brine from DNR approved wells in our County and
usually use all that is available to us. It is not a requirement of a
Road Commission to brine roads but is done as a service to the citizens.
We generally do not brine where there are no homes. We try to respond to
calls on dusty roads but with all the miles of gravel roads and the cost
it is hard to do as good a job as we would like to do. In some counties
the Townships bear the entire cost of brining the roads, but so far the
Road Commission has covered this cost in Otsego County.
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