d: While the road in question is under the jurisdiction of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), we wanted to respond to your points. It's easy to criticize governmental agencies. However, the reality is we design the best roads we can afford to build, understanding that they won't last forever. Then, in accordance with state and federal laws, we solicit bids from contractors and (again as required by state & federal law) select the lowest qualified bidder. We know how to build roads that would last much longer (50 years versus 15 to 20, for example). However, it would cost at least twice as much money to build those roads. That would mean we could reconstruct or resurface half as many roads each year. That means twice as many roads would remain in poor condition (pothole-riddled) while we focused on repairing fewer roads. That is not an acceptable alternative.

The reality is there simply is not enough money available to properly build and maintain the existing roads in our county, our region or our state. In fact, acccording to U.S. Census Bureau data, Michigan has been in the bottom nine states in the nation in terms of state and local road funding per capita. That means that we have all been paying less to maintain our roads than have residents in most other states -- and it shows. The reality is that you get what you pay for, and, in our case, that means crumbling roads.

Road Commission for Oakland County