“Fix the Damn Roads” Michigan!

Feb 28, 2022

“Fix the Damn Roads” was a campaign slogan of the current governor of Michigan during her election campaign in 2018. Why? Because Michigan roads have a national reputation for being notoriously horrible when it comes to potholes every year. These potholes, often so big people call them craters, are the reason for multiple blowouts on the major freeways and surface streets. They knock your vehicle out of alignment and cause problems for vehicle’s suspension systems. And EVERY winter, the population finds itself forking over the extra thousands of dollars out of their own pockets to get their vehicles repaired.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There are different ways to build and repair roads that would make them have a longer life span. Take, for instance, in Europe, where they use advanced polymers, where roads are expected to last 40 years or more. They dig and prepare the base layer of material, gravel, stone, etc., five to six feet deep, twice as deep as we do here. They spend the time surveying for drainage issues and solving those problems. They use newer technologies, like porous road material, which allows water to drain through rather than puddling up to freeze, expand, and thaw into bigger and bigger cracks and potholes.

You can make roads better by spending more money, whether by using more expensive materials that would provide longer term solutions, or by making road repairs more frequently.

BUT this is exactly what has not been done here. Instead, the state government, under Democratic and Republican administrations, has time and time again made decisions to hand over public money to corporations that should be used to fix the roads.