If you drive a dirt road in Metro Detroit, you already know: this has been a brutal stretch.
One of the worst spots viewers flagged: Silverbell and Gallagher in Oakland Township.
Dino Cifani lives on the corner and doesn’t sugarcoat it.
“It’s probably the worst dirt road in Michigan as far as I know,” said Cifani.
A homemade sign in one of the yards simply reads: “This road sucks.”
Drivers either crawl through the deep holes or gun it and hope for the best.
Even box trucks and pickups were bottoming out as they tried to make it through.
Local 4 also checked out Livernois between Dutton and Tienken, another stretch viewers complained about.
It wasn’t much better — just more deep craters and a constant, jarring ride for drivers and school buses.
And it’s not just Oakland County.
A TikTok video from Belleville shows a driver trying to navigate a cratered dirt road.
The video now has nearly one million views.
Why gravel roads are so bad right now
Craig Bryson with the Road Commission for Oakland County says this time of year is always tough on unpaved roads, but this season has been especially rough.
The county maintains about 750 miles of gravel roads.
Right now, the ground is still in the freeze–thaw cycle.
The soil under those roads is partly frozen, so water from melting snow and rain has nowhere to drain.
That water sits in and under the road surface, turning it soft and muddy as it thaws — and every vehicle that passes through digs the ruts and potholes deeper.
“These are not engineer-designed roads,” Bryson said. “These are farm lanes that have evolved into suburban roads. They have no engineered drainage or structure. So, they are tough at this time of year.”
What crews can – and can’t – do in late winter
Until the ground fully thaws and dries, road crews are limited in what they can do.
They can’t do full grading—the process of reshaping and smoothing the entire road— because in these conditions it can be destructive.
Instead, they’re relying on temporary fixes: asphalt millings and spot-grading some of the worst spots.
Both of those are labor-intensive and time-consuming.
Bryson says the road commission only has 19 road graders to cover those 750 miles of gravel.
“We are doing everything we can, but it’s the nature of gravel roads at this time of year that they will be like this,” said Bryson.
The good news: conditions should gradually improve as temperatures warm, but Bryson cautions that it will take time and asks drivers for patience.
Why not just pave all the gravel roads?
It’s a question we hear every year: If gravel roads are such a problem, why not pave them?
The short answer is money.
Bryson says the county receives only enough designated federal road funding to pave about one mile of gravel road per year.
On top of that, paving is expensive — roughly $4 million per mile.
Who’s responsible for fixing gravel-road potholes?
Responsibility depends on whose jurisdiction the road falls under:
- Residential dirt streets inside cities or villages are generally handled by the local city or township public works (DPW) department.
Tell us about the worst roads near you
If there’s a road in your area that’s become dangerous or nearly impassable, we want to see it.
Share your photos and videos with us, and your road might be the next stop on our “Pothole Patrol.”