East of Foster until the Ann Arbor city limits the pavement in pretty rough condition. Looks like someone has attempted to address the absolute worst potholes as recently as this season. Result still barely navigable on a bicycle. Inquiry made with Washtenaw Road Commission to determine responsible jurisdiction. [photo]
Huron River Drive & Foster
» Want more items like this one? Visit the Stopped. Watched. page.
Not so great in car, either! Must be murder on a bike.
The Road Commission, alas, is broke, or claims to be. There are bridges that have been closed for years and roads that are nearly undrivable. Homeowners associations are paying for repaving themselves because the County can’t keep major trunk roads up. Huron River Drive isn’t even close to the worst–try Ann Arbor-Saline at 94 sometime.
And now that I’ve pushed the submit button (*dammit!*) I realize that’s my county perspective screwing me up again–Ann Arbor roads are different, aren’t they. Nevertheless, the same financial miseries afflict us all.
Re: [3] Ann Arbor roads are different.
Although Ann Arbor roads are different, you’re right about the segment in question being the WCRC’s bailiwick – as well as the reason it’s not going to repaired in summer 2013. From a WCRC engineer, I received the following response to my query:
The latest paved road (PASER) ratings map I can find for WCRC is here (PDF). They’re from 2007, alas, but things haven’t gotten much any better since then. The thing to note is that almost no roads are rated good (green), and lots and lots and lots of miles are rated poor (red).
The sooner we start the transition away from asphalt—which is peaking in supply along with oil and will rapidly decline in availability in the next decade when we go over the net-energy cliff—to an alternative surface material, the better.
My understanding is that the recycling/reuse process for asphalt captures only about 85% of the useful material. Then there’s the diesel fuel required for the reconstruction and repaving processes. And all that’s going to come on the heels of the next, imminent financial debacle. In other words, we’ll likely not see a majority of “good” roads in our lifetimes.
Maybe advances in permeable asphalt will improve on the lifetime issue. I wonder if we’ll eventually go back to brick pavers.
Mr. Bean
You may be thinking of cobblestones or setts. Roads have rarely been built of bricks, although there are examples . However for centuries people have used stones to make roads; it was one of the distinguishing features of the Roman Empire.
Thanks, ABC. An Ecosia search yields several links that describe brick roads (including a certain yellow one). Are the pavers around Kerrytown brick or stone? I always thought of them as brick.
Definitely brick. You can see the plans for reconstruction of the brick sections of Detroit St. and State St. here (PDF again).
If the county can’t afford to maintain HRD, maybe they should impose a weight limit of, say, a quarter ton so the road won’t deteriorate further.
It’s all them bikes wearin’ it out.
Sections of Huron River Drive that ARE in good shape were resurfaced thanks to money raised by the Ann Arbor biking community (A partnership between the Washtenaw County Road Commission, the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society and the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission). Maybe that information will get some of the bike haters at A2.com to measure their commentary regarding bike travel?
(Tim, I hope you realize I was kidding/parodying. In fact, I almost appended “/annarbor.com” to my post. It is amazing how fixated the commenters there are on bikes and bike lanes.)
Rod, my assumption, based on my limited time reading the chronicle, is: if you spend any time here, you are pro-bike. I was just sayin,’ not refutin.’