Bay County Scanner Feed

(5/3/19) - Spring is pothole season. It seems for every pothole road crews patch, two more pop up. So what's being done to repair damaged roads and why is it taking so long? Time, is something drivers don't have, to mess with potholes that seem to pop up earlier and earlier each year. The constant jarring of vehicles frays the nerves of travelers across mid-Michigan. So, why aren't they being fixed faster? "It's been a tough year for us because of the amount of rain, rainy days that we've had so far that would prevent us from going out there and doing any of the routine maintenance we need to do," said Fred Peivandi, Managing Director for the Genesee County Road Commission. Although $20 million dollars has been earmarked for repair & construction work, that's still not enough to fix all the bad roads in the Genesee County, much to the dismay of many drivers. "Just that probably due to the weather I think the season's made it a little behind, so yes, I'd say yes, I'm a little upset that they aren't patching, I always have to look out for them," commented Brad Gross from Holly. (Justin) "Recently, I've hit a few big ones, you know. I got a flat tire from one pretty big one, and I mean, like, I wish I could just sue the state, you know, but, you can't. It's been pretty rough," added Justin Smith from Clarkston. According to Anthony Branch, Maintenance Director for the Genesee County Road Commission, roads are normally prioritized starting with main arteries, then local streets, and finally subdivisions. However, our wet weather has delayed how fast potholes are being patched by an average of 3 to 4 days, with some areas much longer. "Subdivisions and some townships such as Grand Blanc and Davison and so forth, yeah, we probably are behind a couple to three weeks on those," said Peivandi. The good news is through Saturday, the worst areas will get first priority, rather than just by traffic flow. And for the rest of the month, road crews will focus on potholes and grating dirt roads before turning their attention to other repair and construction projects this summer.