RCOC: Winter Cleanup To Be Delayed

DETROIT - The Road Commission for Oakland County is saying winter snow removal this year is going to take longer because of cuts in staff and declining revenue.

“In the past, we had 190 employees available to drive snowplows/salt trucks in the winter,” said RCOC Board Chairman Richard Skarritt. “Today, we have 150. That’s a 21 percent reduction in available drivers.”

Skarritt added RCOC typically puts 106 snowplows/salt trucks on the road to battle a major snow or ice storm. The initial drivers can stay on the road for up to 16 hours before they must rest, according to RCOC rules.

Commission spokesperson Craig Bryson said secondary roads, like side streets and residential streets, are going to be affected the most.

"It’s going to slow the secondary part of the process. The first 16 hours or so of any snow storm we should be able to tackle about the same as we have. The problem is we simply don’t have as many back up drivers available for that second 16-hour shift," Bryson said. "It’s going to take longer for the short-duration storms to do the after storm clean up and get into the subdivisions.”

Bryson said major streets and freeways will still be the priority for safety.

RCOC maintains a large majority all state roads in the county on a contract basis for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

“The state department of transportation, which we work for when we clean the state roads, have issued the same edict this year that they did last year on those routes, particularly the non-freeway roads," Bryson said. "They require us to clean them to the point where the tire tracks are clear and do nothing further during overtime unless there’s an actual storm happening."

A list of roads impacted by the MDOT edict are:

Woodward (M-1)

Northwestern Highway (M-10)

Grand River Ave. in Farmington Hills (M-5)

Rochester Road in Rochester Hills (M-150)

Auburn Road in Rochester Hills (old M-59)

Square Lake Road between Telegraph and I-75 (Business Route 75) and Ortonville Road (M-15) north of Dixie Highway.

State routes not affected by this are: I-75, I-696, I-96, M-59, I-275, the freeway portion of M-10, the M-5 extension, US 24 (Telegraph) and M-24 (Lapeer Road).

The commission spent more than $11 million on road maintenance during the 2008-09 winter, and said the figure makes it the second most expensive winter on record.

Skarritt said the 2009-10 fiscal year is the fourth-straight year in which the commission's primary source of funding -- revenue from state gas tax and vehicle registration fees -- has declined.

RCOC has said it had had to defer the replacement of its aging fleet of snowplows/salt trucks and has not replaced employees as they leave or retire.

Over the summer, the commission reduced grass cutting and litter collecting in an effort to cut costs.

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