The Washtenaw County Road Commission is responsible for winter maintenance on all
county roads and State Trunklines. Winter maintenance activities include applying salt and sand, as well as plowing snow on roadways and shoulders.
During a typical year, the Road Commission will respond to
approximately 50 winter maintenance callouts, and will use about
15,000 to 25,000 tons of salt, and 5,000 to 10,000 tons of sand.
(For example, in 2006/2007, the Road Commission responded for
winter maintenance on 48 occasions, used 16,387 tons of salt, and
5,500 tons of sand.)
The Road Commission can easily spend up to $2 million
annually for winter maintenance, depending upon inclement weather
conditions and the duration of the winter months. In
addition, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT)
contracts with the Road Commission to provide winter maintenance
services on the State Trunklines within the boundaries of
Washtenaw County, which includes: I-94,
US-23,
US-12 (Michigan Avenue),
M-14, M-52,
M-17 (Washtenaw Avenue),
M-153 (Ford Road connected to
M-14), Ecorse Road, and the
Willow Run bypass. The
costs for winter maintenance of the State Trunklines is entirely
paid for by MDOT and can be as high as $500,000 per season,
of the $2 million total budget.
The Road Commission performs its winter maintenance in accordance with
the Winter Maintenance Guidelines approved annually by the Board of
County Road Commissioners, with the highest priority being given to State Trunklines and high
traffic volume roads.
In order to plan winter maintenance for all public roads within
Washtenaw County, it is recommended that the following be adopted as
Road Commission Guidelines for the winter season of 2008/2009.
A. Winter maintenance operations will be conducted based on a
priority system established on the County and State Trunkline roads. The
priorities primarily have been established based on traffic volumes.
Priority 1 – State Trunklines
Priority 2 – High
volume hard surface roads
Priority 3 – Medium
volume hard surface roads
Priority 4 –
Subdivision streets
Priority 5 – Gravel
Roads
B. The scheduling of overtime depends on a variety of factors
including: road conditions, weather forecasts, nature of the storm, time
of storm, etc. The following general guidelines will prevail:
Priority 1, 2 and 3
Routes – Overtime may only be authorized by the Superintendent of
Maintenance or his designee as necessary.
Priority 4 and 5 Routes
– Overtime may only be authorized by the Managing Director or his
designee after a three (3) inch accumulation of snow, an ice storm or
blowing and drifting snow which interferes with the flow of vehicular
traffic.
Shop – Overtime may
be authorized by the Director of Operations as necessary to keep
equipment in good working condition.
C. The Road Commission will monitor the Internet weather sites and
local radio broadcasts for daily and emergency weather reporting
conditions.
D. The Director of Operations and Superintendent of Maintenance will
present these guidelines at the annual meeting of the Snow Emergency
Council held at the Washtenaw County Emergency Operations Center in late
October/early November. The Snow Emergency Council is comprised of
concerned public service agencies operating within Washtenaw County.
These include, but are not limited to, Road Commission, MDOT and
municipal street departments, news media, school districts, fire and
police departments, and Emergency Management. The purpose of
establishing the Council is to coordinate emergency response of public
service agencies when winter weather may threaten the health and safety
of the public.
E. The hiring of outside contractors may be authorized by the
Managing Director or his designee, based on the following:
1. Forecasted storm
conditions.
2. The condition of the
road system at the time of decision.
3. The status of crews and
equipment at the time of decision.
The Operations Division shall:
a. Develop a ready list of
contractors to be called in the event they are required.
b. Develop and maintain
maps and routes so contractor assignments may be properly made and the
work inspected.
F. Crews normally assigned to State Trunklines may be used on County
Primary and Local Roads after State Trunklines have been cleared
countywide.
G. Night Patrol will begin late November, 2008 and continue through
approximately mid March, 2009. Night Patrol consists of a four-person
crew that is on duty from 8:00 p.m. until 4:30 a.m., five days a week,
and responds to ice and snow conditions on State Trunklines. This crew
is funded in total by the Michigan Department of Transportation. In
isolated cases, the crew can perform winter maintenance on County roads,
at the Road Commission’s expense.
H. If another storm starts before clean up on priority routes #4 and
#5 have been completed, crews will return to priority #1, #2 and #3.
Your truck knocked
down my mailbox! When are you going to fix it?
