(WXYZ) — The weather is getting warmer this week, and it's the time of year when Michigan drivers have to start dodging more and more potholes.
According to the website QuoteWizard, pothole damage costs U.S. drivers $3 billion a year.
The weather this year has been warmer than usual, and we haven't had as much snow. However, does that mean we will see fewer potholes? We're going in-depth to find out.
According to QuoteWizard, Michigan has the worst potholes in the nation, followed by Indiana, Rhode Island and Washington.
With this year being a milder winter, Bryon Santo from the Macomb County Department of Roads says the pothole situation is a little different.
"We've been pretty fortunate as seen with the weather. We haven't had severe freeze-thaw cycles mixed in with rain, so our road conditions are pretty decent to this point," Santo said.
7 Action News also spoke to Craig Bryson from the Oakland County Road Commission. He, too, echoed the same message.
"Two, three, four years ago, before we resurfaced the really bad roads, we would be just inundated right now. Now, it's more of maintenance keep up of those popping up," Bryson said.
Crews were out on Greenfield Road patching roads on Tuesday, but that doesn't mean drivers aren't frustrated.
"We get their frustration. We share their frustration. There are still a lot of bad roads. It is better than what it was five, six, seven years ago. But there is still more bad roads than any one of us would like to see," Bryson said.
This is the legacy of 50 years of underfunding roads in Michigan, compared to others states in the nation.
Last year, 88 miles of Oakland County roads got a new surface. But Bryson says it's still not enough.
"The other states in the nation, they use the same type of materials we have. They build the roads the same we do, the science is the same, the engineering is the same, materials are the same, they just do a lot more of it. Ohio, for example, spends a billion dollars more a year on a similar size system," Bryson said.
"How much funding are we lacking right now?" 7 Action News asked.
"We need about $2 billion in additional funding or more the next 10 years then what we are going to get," he said.
That's just for Oakland County.
In the meantime, Bryson said we're not out of the woods yet.
"We could get weather changes this month — March, April — just depends on how mother nature hits us. But we are ready," he said.
Now, road commissions across metro Detroit are urging folks to be their eyes and ears and report potholes in their areas.
