At the March 24th Board meeting, Washtenaw County's Road Commission delivered its annual report on the state of local roads.  Northfield Township was asked to choose from a list of optional road repair projects.  Each project requires a Township contribution.  Our Board will contribute $130,000, which barely covers the repair of two miles of dirt road. 

You can read the report online here.  You may download the pdf here. (the pdf is 6MB)

For background, I have linked to two references explaining and illustrating, with  drawings, and photographs, most of the roadwork terminology used by the Road Commission, MDOT, and our Township Manager.

"Pavement Management Analysis" is a guide to evaluating and maintaining roads prepared for the nearby city of Novi.  It was written by OHM, a civil engineering firm that has worked with Northfield Township in the past.   You can read it online or you can download it Here.   A bit of the material is specific to roads in Novi.  There's an overview of the PASER pavement surface rating system.   Various methods of maintaining and repairing asphalt and concrete pavement are illustrated with their 2012 pricetags.  All the buzzwords are here: sealing, slurry sealing, microsurfacing, cape seal, thin overlays, pulverization and overlay, etc..   The importance of investing in pavement maintenance is shown in its effect on Remaining Service Life (RSL).

A deeper dive into PASER (Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating) is provided by a University of Wisconsin publication.  You can view it online or you can download it here.