By Ross Boissoneau | Dec. 10, 2021
It’s midnight in mid-December, and fresh lake effect is blanketing the roads. Or a weekend morning during the holidays with winds howling and the drifts piling up, and the surface is slick — where you can see it. Or it’s a workweek evening and the roads on the drive in are coated with ice. Who ya gonna call? Well, nobody, because the Leelanau County Road Commission is already on the task. In Leelanau County 28 drivers — with others able to step in as needed — are on the job throughout the day and night, weekdays and weekends. Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and several county road agenciesin other parts of Michigan have reported a shortage of candidates to filltheir winter road crew openings, and our state is expected to have a"wetter-than-average"winter (read: more snow/precipitation), according to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. MarkGeib, administrator of MDOT’s Transportation Management Operations division, told the Detroit Free Pressit’s the first time in his 30 years at the agency that he’s seen a snowplow driver shortage like this. The MDOT contracts out the responsibility for about 75 percent of the roads to counties and manages the remaining 25 percent.
The snowplow driver shortage is not as acute here in this county. But John Popa, a member of the Leelanau County Road Commission Board for 18 years, says — as with virtually every other industry — recruiting and keeping crew members is an ongoing battle. “Years ago, getting on the road commission meant you were set for life till you retire. Now, they come and go.”
Still, “The county is well maintained because we have half a mill millage for the county. That permits us to go over and beyond,” Popa says. Leelanau voters last approved the road upkeep millage renewal in 2020 at .4970 of one mill, the same level approved in 2018 and every two years since 1986. According to the road commission, in 2020, this millage collected $1,351,837 for road and highway maintenance and general operating expenses.
How much snow does the road commission deal with? The average is 120 to 140 inches per year, though last year came in at just 100 inches. Last year on Feb. 5 when dealing with 12 inches of snow, the trucks drove a total of 3,600 miles across the county (at an average of 25 miles per hour) in a single day. That’s the equivalent of driving a plow from Suttons Bay to Fairbanks, Alaska.
Popa notes the dedication of the staffers. “It’s hard work. I’m exhausted just riding along. One guy plowed 57 days in a row,” he says.
This will be Managing Director Brendan Mullane’s second winter on the job. He came to northern Michigan from the Detroit area where he worked for an engineering company and construction firm. He and his family moved north during the pandemic to be near his in-laws, who had moved here three years ago, and when the position opened up, he jumped at it.
Over the years, the challenges haven’t really changed, as drivers deal with snow, sleet, and winds. But the equipment has. “Technology has developed over the years,” says Mullane. Today one tandem truck can plow, scrape, drop salt or sand, and send the snow flying off the road, all at the same time.
Such technology isn’t inexpensive: the trucks come in at a cool $250,000 each. They complement the rest of the equipment: front end loaders, excavators, backhoes, graders,sweepers, mowers,bucket trucks, brush chippers, crew trucks …[deep breath]... patrol trucks with plows, semitrucks with dump trailers, ashoulder widener, chip spreader, asphalt distributor, roller. It’s an impressive list.
And it’s all necessary. Leelanau County has 598 miles of county roads, 171 miles of paved primary and 319 miles of paved local roads. Add another 45 miles of gravel roads and 63 miles of seasonal roads. And don’t forget 105 miles of state-owned roads (including M-22, and M-72) the county maintains under contract with the MDOT.
While the plows may be the most visible reminder of the work done as they traverse the whole county, the not-snow seasons bring their own challenges: reconstructing road surfaces, cleaning ditches, clearing and maintaining shoulders.
Keeping ahead of problems is always preferable: Mullane says doing an overlay costs about $100,000 per lane mile. Complete reconstruction, including crushing the existing pavement, hauling it away and reconstructing the road, costs about $500,000 per lane mile. Chip sealing – where a layer of tar is followed by a layer of crushed gravel, with traffic then eroding the gravel into a relatively smooth surface, costs $15,000 per lane mile. “It extends the life at least ten years, maybe 15,” says Mullane.
Popa says the biggest challenge he sees going forward is the increasing population and popularity of the county for residents and vacationers alike. “There’s an enormous amount of traffic that’s beating things up,” he says. Financing is another area of concern. “We’re thankful for the millage. State funding has been flat.”
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