Schaefer Road has a "DEEP GRAVEL BASE"
Our reason for asking is that half of the traffic on that stretch of road appears to be heavy truck traffic. So, we're thinking that the traffic engineers (who know a lot more than we do) would take this into consideration and build a really good, sound, sturdy road. Research would reveal that I was correct, they designed and built a very sturdy road in Melvindale. We're still compiling facts but it appears that the road was built to resist damage from frost during the seasonal weight restriction periods.
Still, we expressed to officer Slaughter that not only was the road way probably sufficient but that the frost law signs that they (the city of Melvindale) installed, were not the correct signs, were not installed in correct locations and were in fact required by law. Officer Slaughter insisted that the signs were not required and that they were installed as a courtesy. This is just plain incorrect. The signage argument can be viewed in our confirmed tab.
I found this statement in a document explaining why the law was changed, "The seasonal weight restrictions do not apply on some designated roads that are built with deep gravel bases to withstand heavy vehicle loads during the spring thaw."
The image below is a section of the cross sestion of the newly reconstructed Schaefer road and as you can see, it appears to have been built with an 18" aggrigate base. This is more than the 9" used in interstate roads and most other roads with aggrigate bases.
So, it would seem that there needs to be a revisit on the zoning or rights that the city of melvindale has to enforce the frost laws on this stretch of roadway that doesn't seem to need any protection.