Detroit News: Bad roads getting worse

From Detroit News:

There's new evidence that Michigan roads arecrumbling faster than they can be fixed.  Facing high repair costs and afunding crunch, a growing number of counties are being forced to cut roadmaintenance and staff to match their austere budgets. Eight in 10 counties arereducing maintenance and construction, nearly two-thirds are cutting back onreplacement of hard-surface roads, and three-quarters are reducing or eliminatingequipment purchases, according to a survey by the County Road Association ofMichigan released Monday.  A growing number are even returninghard-surfaced roads to gravel. Two years ago, seven of the 83 counties hadreverted portions of their paved road networks to gravel. Last year, the numberballooned to 23 -- and another 36 counties indicated it's likely, or possible,that they will do so in the near future, the organization's report said