Understanding Road Maintenance

for Ottawa County

Road Commission and Township Collaboration 2012

Authority for Road Maintenance Routine Maintenance Obligation and Responsibility

Under Public Act 283 of 1909, shoulders, the grading of These activities are routinely the Road Commission is gravel roads, the done by cyclic or reactive work charged with providing maintenance of roadside types. Cyclic examples include reasonably safe county roads drainage systems, and street sweeping or shoulder to the motoring public winter maintenance grading and reactive examples through construction and operations. include pothole patching. maintenance efforts. In general, road Preventative Maintenance For the most part, these duties maintenance activities are include the patching of hard broken down into routine, preventative, emergency, These activities are periodic surfaced roads, the grading inexpensive treatments of the and planned maintenance. and patching of roadside pavement which provide protection, decrease the rate of deterioration, and add service life to the pavement. Examples County Road Mileage Breakdown include crack sealing, seal coat surfacing, and skip paving. Primary, Paved = 425 miles Subdivision = 410 miles Local, Paved = 503 miles ------Emergency Maintenance Local, Gravel = 341 miles Total = 1,679 miles

These activities cannot be Local Road Maintenance Overview estimated with any certainty in Township Collaboration advance. Examples include storm related damage or The Road Commission and subdivision streets, pave culvert failures. Townships have a unique local gravel roads, or apply relationship on the issue of dust control materials. Planned Maintenance local road construction and maintenance. The Townships have been relied upon to assist in These activities are identified through strategic planning. The Road Commission funding these local road improvements as they Examples include maintains all local streets reconstruction and resurfacing. primarily benefit residents year-round, however funding constraints limit the ability to in a specific area. resurface or reconstruct Pothole Patching Gravel Road Preventative Maintenance is a more economical way of Method of Repair Maintenance Overview maintaining the road network by lengthening the time Gravel road maintenance Potholes become plentiful in between construction and the spring as frost comes out activities include periodic reconstruction. Methods of the ground. As a result, grading, the addition of include: Road Commission workers gravel at spot locations, and Crack Sealing shovel more than 1 million vegetation control. As pounds of patching material funding allows, the Road into potholes every year. Commission will perform The crack or joint is cleaned gravel resurfacing and and an overband layer of As weather and resources drainage maintenance. rubberized asphalt is placed to fill the area. allow, the Road Commission The Township will select and will also use a long lasting Seal Coat Surfacing spray injection system that purchase a dust control cleans the area, applies a tack material, and determine the coat, and applies the patch frequency and location of A three step process with a material into the pothole. applications. The Road layer of asphalt emulsion, a Commission will then grade layer of chip aggregates, and a What can you do? Work the gravel road prior to the fog sealant. crews constantly patrol for - placement of the dust control. and repair - potholes. Still, Skip Paving Dust control materials are you can help. If you see a pothole, please report it by typically a man made A single layer bituminous calling 616-842-5400 or go Calcium Chloride solution or overlay for a small segment of online at www.ottawacorc.com. a Mineral Well Brine that is pumped from the ground. roadway usually only a couple hundred feet in length.

H Winter Maintenance Operations

Winter maintenance operations shall be carried out with normally performed maintenance methods as required based upon a number of factors such as, but not limited to: road conditions, weather forecasts, nature and type of storm event, time and duration of storm event, etc. It is the Road Commission’s objective to minimize the utilization of overtime, while achieving a primary goal of traversable roadways.

Winter maintenance operations shall be conducted in accordance with the established priority system based on traffic volumes, road classification, and location. The order of priority is as follows:

Priority 1 – State Highways Priority 2 – Multi-lane Primary Roads Priority 3 – Primary Roads Priority 4 – Local Paved Roads Priority 5 – Subdivision Streets Priority 6 – Local Gravel Roads Priority 7 – Dead End Streets and Cul-de-sacs