Posted by RBoots on November 14, 2014 at 05:18:26 from (173.209.212.240):
In Reply to: Township roads and posted by WIWinterman on November 13, 2014 at 06:15:14:
I work for a road commission here in MI, and each driver takes care of a township and a quarter of another. The one I take care of luckily has no mega dairies. Adjoining townships do though, and their equipment is starting to filter into mine. These dairies have not all been here forever, 75% or so have started in the last 10 or 15 years, many not even that old though. Most are owned by Belgians or Dutchmen. Their equipment destroys roads, especially when there is 5-10 10,000+ manure spreaders making 20-30 trips each down the same road each day. Good paved roads have turned into roads of solid patch material, and gravel roads into mud bogs that a tandem county truck with all rear wheels locked in, cant drive down. People live on these roads, try explaining to people why they can hardly get to their home. Unfortunately, the right to farm act protects these multi- million dollar operations (enterprises) , and does not require them to abide by frost laws and weight limits, and also protects anyone hauling agricultural commodities (sand, feed, silage, hay, outgoing milk) to them from the same weight limits and frost laws if they are bonded to that particular dairy. A responsible business owner hauling to these operations will abide by the same rules as everyone else, but there is always those that dont care. Usually the small "mom and pop" dairies try not to tear up roads or if the do, they will call and let us know, and not keep hauling on that same road, so it will not become irreparable. The drivers that do unfortunately have these large operations in their territory usually have to spend 60% of their time maintaining only 10% of their roads (the ones around the dairies), allowing them only 40% of their time to try to keep up with the other 90% of their territory, and those roads still need to be maintained regularly as well. When you figure both "lanes" of gravel and pavement, each driver is responsible for around 160-180 miles of road. One township here in my county tried to fight having a new dairy built, as did the residents, but the right to farm act allowed it to be built, no matter what the township or its residents thought. Needless to say, their roads are now deteriorating quickly. Some people put short 6-8" steel spikes 4' in from the edge of the road in their yard, angling towards oncoming manure spreader tires. They dont try to hide them, theyll paint them orange or whatever, but they say if the dont, they've had spreaders 10' into their yards, while trying to pass oncoming spreaders. Houses around the new dairies for a mile around them now have no resale, so the people trying to move away from them cant sell their houses. No one enforces the, "manure must be turned under in 24 hours rule" either. Most say the roads are not their responsibility, and are there to use, and will destroy them and will not even consider helping to repair them. Hard to patch/ scrape roads like that when the tractors and spreaders will not stop or even slow down unless hitting someone or a vehicle is imminent. I know they provide jobs and I appreciate that, but they could do it in a much more community/general public responsible way. Thats just my experiences with the subject. Ross
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