Counties turn failing roads to gravel

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - 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.

While Vice President Joe Biden was in Michigan to break ground Friday on a $68 million project along Interstate 94, the majority of county roads weren't eligible for stimulus cash and money was tight for those that were.

Montcalm converted nearly 10 miles on three primary county roads into gravel in May. Crushing the pavement and laying gravel cost about $10,000 a mile. Repaving a mile with asphalt would cost more than $100,000. The county had patched the roads in bits and pieces for years. But with potholes the size of steering wheels and no money for an extensive repaving, crews figured it wasn't worth another piecemeal job.

"We were throwing good money into bad roads," said Randy Stearns, managing director of the road commission headquartered about 50 miles northeast of Grand Rapids. "It had to stop."

The new gravel on Lake Montcalm Road actually offers an easier ride than the crater-filled pavement it replaced. Motorists have stopped driving on the roads' shoulders to avoid potholes.

But speeds have slowed and there are complaints about chipped and cracked windshields from flying stones, said Trent Hilding, 29, a county resident whose Chevrolet truck is one of the more than 700 vehicles to travel the stretch of road on an average day.

"It's smoother than it was before, but my concern is how they will maintain it," Hilding said. "Especially in the winter."

And while gravel roads typically are cheaper to build, they aren't always cheaper to maintain. A study published by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2005, for example, found that high traffic gravel roads can cost more per mile over a several-year period than paved roads.

Well-maintained pavement also is generally touted as a preferable driving surface because it is more consistent, allows higher speeds and keeps vehicles cleaner. But road commission officials who have chosen gravel note the pavement being replaced often is riddled with hazards.

Roads are deteriorating in several states as the recession ravages tax revenues and concrete and asphalt costs escalate.

Indiana's Hancock County returned 10 miles of road sealed with a thin layer of liquid asphalt back to gravel this year, after finding a gallon of the asphalt that cost about 65 cents in 2004 now goes for about $1.85.

"Prices going up -- that's what kills us," said Joe Copeland, Hancock County's roads superintendent. "Next year we may have to do more."

But the practice appears to be most common in Michigan. Heavily reliant on the struggling auto industry, the state slipped into a recession well ahead the rest of the nation. It's April unemployment rate sat at 12.9 percent.

Michigan is getting an estimated $847 million from the federal stimulus package to help roads, but even that money won't offset years of neglect. The state Department of Transportation is expected to spend nearly $1.9 billion, including stimulus money, on road and bridge projects this fiscal year. That's just a shade above the nearly $1.8 billion spent in 2006.

Montcalm County had sought repaving money in a $10 million stimulus wish list that was whittled to $1.3 million in March. The county learned in April it would get no more than $670,000 in stimulus road money.

The cash will be used this fall to improve and repave a stretch of road that the county spent more than $10,300 of its own money to grind up earlier this year. Stearns, of the road commission, said the county had acted out of safety concerns and several motorists called to say deteriorating pavement had wrecked tires and damaged vehicle frames.

Many politicians doubt motorists would support higher taxes to fund road projects during tough economic times. But without new money, small agencies are left with few choices.

"We don't want to go backward, and I view this as going backward," said Tim Hammill, managing director of the Dickinson County Road Commission in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where 2.5 miles of paved road was converted to gravel last year. "It's depressing."