Not Our Problem

big rockpile · #1 02/09/10, 12:50 PM

With thawing our road is getting so Bad than we have to use 4WD and drag in places getting in and out.

Nobody is wanting to do anything.I brought up with my wife we have to do something.She is telling me we an't doing anything because no one else isn't.

I don't know what to do its tearing the heck out of vehicals.

big rockpile

Curtis B · #2 02/09/10, 01:03 PM

Don't you hate being the only one that wants to fix a problem. I run into the same thing with my FIL's trailer or his tractor. I fix it when I use it, go back again, and a BIL or FIL has used and broke again, I fix again. You ask why they don't fix it when it when they break and they say "cause you will when you use it". Glad the county does my road, I know my neighbors wouldn't fix it either. Sorry, no advice.

Hank · #3 02/09/10, 01:06 PM

Rock, our place is on a deadend gravel road that is owned by the residents. Set up that way by the original owner we all bought from. Everyone knew going in. Their are four of us. I guess I am lucky, we all work together to keep it in good shape. I do most of the mowing and scraping because I am the only one with a tractor. One of the others did borrow a tractor from a friend and do some rd. work while I was laid up sick last year.
Another rented a backhoe and did some ditching.
Nothing like good neighbors!!:banana02:

Hank

http://www.doublemfarmandchuckwagon.webs.com

rambler · #4 02/09/10, 01:22 PM

'Here' the county doesn't allow shared roads any more because of that problem. You have your own driveway out to a public road, then you do what you want with your driveway, the county doesn't have to be the Big Heavy to bother with these types of complaints on private land.

--->Paul

big rockpile · #5 02/09/10, 01:22 PM

Thing is there is 20+ parcels back here.5 families living back here,several Property Owners not.

My wife tried getting it where everyone paid their share to take care of the road.One person took after her with Shotgun,one told her she was no longer welcome at her place and one said we was Deadbeats because we weren't willing to pay a fith of the cost for the whole road.But neither was anyone else.

Yea nobody wants to work together.

big rockpile

big rockpile · #6 02/09/10, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rambler

'Here' the county doesn't allow shared roads any more because of that problem. You have your own driveway out to a public road, then you do what you want with your driveway, the county doesn't have to be the Big Heavy to bother with these types of complaints on private land.

--->Paul

This road runs about 2 miles.The county says they won't do anything until it is brought up to specs.I took Ambulance an hour to get me out of here one time.Had a Fire Truck turn over one time back here.Another time Forestry turned a Dozer over back here fighting a fire.

big rockpile

where I want to · #7 02/09/10, 01:32 PM

In most places, this problem is addressed in the easement wording and the laws governing the kind of easement for right of ways.
Ususally, I think, a person can do all the work and bill the rest of the users for their share of the commonly used roads.
But with that comes the cost of getting the money out of people along with dealing with their attitudes about it. Guess it depends on how much you're willing to put up with the problems to get it fixed.
Maybe you can start a road association with monthly dues for road maintenance.

uncle Will in In. · #8 02/09/10, 02:17 PM

Get a horse

rambler · #9 02/09/10, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by big rockpile

This road runs about 2 miles.The county says they won't do anything until it is brought up to specs.I took Ambulance an hour to get me out of here one time.Had a Fire Truck turn over one time back here.Another time Forestry turned a Dozer over back here fighting a fire.

big rockpile

'Here' for accessing 20 properties, the township or county would take over the road, assess taxes to bring it up to code to the 20 people, and maintain it from there as part of the road system.

Not saying what is right or wrong, but that is the way it would go here.

Trying to manage it the way it is sure sounds like a mess, feel for you, you'll never do it right for the neighbors.

--->Paul

calliemoonbeam · #10 02/09/10, 04:51 PM

I have the same problem Rock! There are 11 homesteads on my road. When I moved in two years ago, I was told that all the homeowners chipped in to keep the road maintained. The road was not great when I moved in, and not one thing has been done since then. I found out that one homeowner was buying all the materials and paying to have them hauled in and then using his own tractor and paying for all fuel and upkeep and doing all the work himself, and not one single person on this road would chip in their share!

There are a one or two kind of run-down places, so I can see they might have money problems, but there also five or six really well-to-do places up here, so I don't know why they don't chip in, and the others seem well enough off that they should be able to afford it too. I told him I'd be more than happy to chip in my share or even more whenever he gets ready to do it again, but apparently he just remarried three years ago (shortly before I moved in), and his new wife said he was NOT going to do it any more on his own, lol. He feels really guilty because the road is so bad, but I told him I'm with his wife and if I was her I wouldn't let him do it all any more either!

But in the meantime, the road gets worse and worse with every rain, snow or ice storm, and I know it's got to be bad on the vehicles. By the time I get home, I feel like all my teeth have been knocked loose. Good thing I don't have dentures, or they'd probably be in the floor, lol! The county won't take over our road until all the owners agree to widening it by 10 feet, which a few won't because they've built so close to the road it would practically be up to their porch, so we're at a standoff.

Wolf mom · #11 02/09/10, 05:18 PM

We here in this area have the same problem - and even have someone that owns a motor grader.

Not enough families will get together to pay for grading & cinders. The county wants 10's of thousands of dollars to bring it to spec in order for them to take over.

we all just drive slow....

big rockpile · #12 02/09/10, 09:33 PM

Our other place we pay $160 a year for 100 foot of road on our side.The road is always maintained.

Here just to have rock hauled in for my share 1420 feet along our property would be $400 a year.Which would be fine with us but that just takes care of a small fraction of the road.

where I want to That is what my wife wated to start was a Road Association,thats when the ones back here were about to literally string her up,telling her they didn't need anyone telling them what to pay to take care of the road.

uncle Will in In. I have seen times you couldn't get a Horse to go down the road,had to walk it through the woods.

big rockpile

HermitJohn · #13 02/10/10, 08:40 AM

You also need to realize not all residents have the same needs. Back when I had to get out every day, I fixed the access myself as nobody else ever had any money or desire to spend money on road or gravel. Last couple or three years where I get out once a month for supplies, I can pick my day and just hunker down when roads are in bad condition. With 4wd and ability to pick dry day to use it, it was livable. I could easily argue why should I pay when I dont need easy daily access.

Guy who owns a small parcel that shares my road was trying to sell and nobody who saw access road even bothered to look at the property. He wanted me to go in on hiring a dozer. I agreed as it was getting horrible even dry with a 4wd. Well he found guy who did fairly good job but then didnt come and consult with me, just had the guy fix road to his place and didnt ever come and collect my share of the cost. We had agreed on price as he hired dozer guy to do some work clearing on his place also. Would have liked to got that dozer guy's name as he was best of any I hired over the years and I could use some work done on my property. And it would have benefited both of us if he had went little further and finished the sloping part of drive so water doesnt rush down the existing gullies on that part and wash into the repaired part.

SFM in KY · #14 02/10/10, 09:06 AM

We've got a similar problem and DH is the only one that works on our road, but then he has a small Case tractor with a loader and can do quite a lot. There are four other "road users" ... two help with $$ for gravel once or twice a year ... one tries but rarely has a full share (young couple with pretty basic wages/job) and the other doesn't live on the property and will never contribute.

One of the biggest problems is one neighbor doesn't have a 4 x 4, just a small passenger car, has never had to deal with "country roads" and keeps thinking that "more gravel" will solve all the problems and that it should be like a city street. DH has actually built roads so knows what he's doing and there is only so much you can do without investing thousands to jackhammer/dynamite a couple of rock ledges, cut back and put in big culverts. Neighbor wants the county to take over the road but the high $$ upgrade would have to be done to get the road to their specifications.

The only low tech/ low cost solution is what he is doing ... patching the worst places, keeping the gravel that washes down the road onto the county paved road scooped up and put back on the road ... and not putting a lot of loose gravel on top of bedrock.

I'm not sure what the situation will be if/when he gets to the point where he can no longer do the upkeep.

ronbre · #15 02/10/10, 10:55 AM

In Michigan some counties are removing paving from roads and going back to gravel ..they say "it is easier to maintain gravel, and cheaper"..well that is what they said when they charged us huge taxes to pave our roads "it will be easier to maintain"..

duh..

i'm glad ours has been recently paved (2003)..but i do have concerns that someday they'll rip it up too

DoubleBee · #16 02/10/10, 11:02 AM

My brother shares a drive on an easement with 2 other houses. He always kept the main part where they all entered in decent shape, but last year he hauled and spread pretty large gravel on the mushiest bad area, and one of the others came out with a tractor and scraped it off to the sides of the road because it was too bumpy.
Now it's getting really soft and muddy, and he says no way he'll do anything to fix it again.

fellini123 · #17 02/10/10, 04:15 PM

Ok I know I'm bad but our street is county maintain till 3 feet past our driveway. Then it is gravel and maintained by people that live on the road. there are quite a few families that live there, probably about 100 and they do a pretty good job. It is a windey gravel road and there are places when there is a lot of rain that washes away.
We dont ever travel on that road so I dont get involved. Next year VDOT is going to close down the north bound side of highway 29, which is the turn off for our road. Everyone will have to detour about 8 miles to highway 151 and then travel the long windey gravel road. At that point, VDOT will take over mantaince on the gravel road. I cant imagine traveling it everytime we want to leave home....it wil be awful and will last for at least a year if not longer.
Alice in Virginia

rambler · #18 02/10/10, 04:27 PM

They are detouring on a private road? Wow. That's gotta be a hard sell!

--->Paul

rambler · #19 02/10/10, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronbre

In Michigan some counties are removing paving from roads and going back to gravel ..they say "it is easier to maintain gravel, and cheaper"..well that is what they said when they charged us huge taxes to pave our roads "it will be easier to maintain"..

duh..

i'm glad ours has been recently paved (2003)..but i do have concerns that someday they'll rip it up too

I read about that - wow. I'd be asking for the money back that upgraded the road. Pretty goofy.

I think tar has bevcome worth more & harder to find - it is a waste product of refining gasoline, and as we use a bit less, and are getting more efficient at refining, there is less available. I wonder if the state is trying to re-sell the tar for a profit to itself? Odd game.

--->Paul

fellini123 · #20 02/10/10, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rambler

They are detouring on a private road? Wow. That's gotta be a hard sell!

--->Paul

Yup thats it basically. But there is no choice there is only 2 ways in and out of the area. One is off of Highway 29 and the other is this windey gravel road. When they shut down the north bound lane of highway 29 it will leave only the two south bound lanes. One will be redirected north and the other will stay South bound. There will be no turn lanes and since it is a major truck route, in order to turn onto our road you would have to stop and back up traffic until you could make the turn onto the street. VDOT doesnt want that as it would cause many accidents, so that is why the detour.
I cant wait!!!!

Alice n Virginia