Road Construction

 Michigan is a punchline for the poor quality of roads.  The state has harsh weather, yeah, but that doesn't excuse the horrible state that our roads get in to.  Governor Whitmer won on her promise to "Fix The Damn Roads," and meanwhile, there's a fillable form to recoup damages from potholes on the State Department of Transportation (hereforth known as MDOT)'s website.

My expertise comes from working in a MDOT-certified soils and aggregate laboratory shortly after I graduated college:  In the summer of 2012, part of my responsibilities were to drive around the State of Michigan to various field offices and collect asphalt samples from whatever roads were being paved at the time.  Some of the more notable projects I had my fingers in that summer were M-46/Apple Avenue in Downtown Muskegon, Oakes and Grandville Avenue in Downtown Grand Rapids, Interstate 96 east of Muskegon/US-31, M-231 between Nunica and M-45, M-37 around Brohman, and I-196 between Holland and Saugatuck (as of Summer/Fall 2021, being rebuilt from the time I'd worked on it in 2012).

Some of the old-timers in the office lamented the fact that roads just don't last as long as they used to.  I-96 outside of Muskegon, and Oakes & Grandville in GR had been repaved in the late 90s...barely 15 years ago.  I-196 had to be redone within 9 years.  M-231 has already been resurfaced.  M-46 was falling apart last time I drove on it in 2019, showing that that road barely lasted 7.  The evidence was all around.  But, there's the niggling detail of M-37 around Brohman - west of Big Rapids, south of Baldwin, north of White Cloud.  That had been repaved in the 1970s, according to one of the old farmers who came out to watch us.  Why were we repaving it when it was still in good condition?  Or, more to the point of this article, why did *this* road last so long when everything else crumbled before our eyes?

In the late 1980s, the Strategic Highway Research Program began developing a new asphalt spec.  This was known as Superpave; a truncated version of "Superior Performing Asphalt Pavements."  By 1993, the Federal Highway Administration started rolling out Superpave asphalt on a national scale...Michigan rolled out the plan in that 40 percent of jobs in 1998, 90 percent in 1999, and all paving projects by 2000 were Superpave.

What makes Superpave special?  It's a performance-based specification system that designates binder liquid, mix design (the amount of aggregates/gravel), analysis, and has an element of computer integration/design.  For further reading, hit the link in the previous paragraph.

Now, on some hearsay...again, recalling conversations I'd had with the old-timers at the materials testing facility in 2012, they weren't happy with the full transition to Superpave in 2000.  They didn't actually call anything a "conspiracy," but they did call out the fact that the expected life span went from 15-20 years (under the old asphalt spec) down to 10-15 (under Superpave).  Superpave asphalt went down cheaper and more quickly.  The old timers didn't outright call it a "conspiracy," but the attitude was there:  Politicians (at the time) could wave their numbers around, saying "I saved 30% on road construction costs," ignoring the fact that they actually doubled the cost of the road because it would have to be paved twice as often.  The "conspiracy" was that they were pulling wool over the public's eyes by focusing solely on the short-term cost savings, rather than long-term sustainability.  Obviously, there's no way of actually verifying these claims, but it's certainly an interesting thought.

According to a 1992 bulletin from MDOT, from the 1950s into the 1970s, MDOT used manufactured coarse aggregates, with fine aggregates and mineral filler for highway projects.  They had a 'stony' gradation, and were made at more localized batch plants...similar to a European model.  But, by the 1970s in Europe, they began using stone mastic or stone matrix construction - what this meant was that the aggregate (stones) inside the asphalt mix were flat and sharp, and sort of interlocked to create structure within the pavement itself.  This was adopted in Michigan before Superpave was in the early 1990s.  This is the reason that roads "just don't last as long as they used to."  The roads are literally different than they were back in the day.

And, if I haven't bored you enough already, we can talk about pavement experiments with warm-mix asphalt.  In 2012 when they were repaving Interstate 96 between Muskegon and Nunica (in preparation for M-231), they used you, dear reader, as a guinea pig!  Between the Muskegon exit on I-96 and Norris Creek, they paved one half of the highway with warm mix asphalt, and the other half with normal Superpave asphalt.  Warm mix asphalt (WMA) has additives that allow it to be transported farther and applied slightly cooler, thus increasing the transportation radius of each asphalt plant (asphalt, being a liquid, requires a specific temperature range to be successfully applied), and reducing the need for as many asphalt plants (thusly allowing companies to cut cost by reducing workforce).

Anyway, the roads are terrible because they're literally built different.

Slow your ass down when driving through road construction sites, please.  60mph on the highway, 45 when you see workers...generally obey the posted speed limits.  You don't know until you're on a road construction site how much it's appreciated when cars slow down and give you a little more room.  Road construction workers are people, too.  Keep that in mind when you make the conscious decision to speed past them.