The Eight Mile Minefield

Growing up on a dirt road in Redford, Michigan, and a nearly lifelong Michigan resident, I am intimately familiar with the ruts, potholes, and icy conditions that naturally accompany winter driving in our great State. When we discussed moving to Northville in the early part of this century, one of the decidedly "plus" side of the ledger items was our belief that the conditions of the roads in this community HAD to be better than our experience in blue-collar Redford, that had nowhere near the resources to maintain their roads as well as upscale Northville and Novi...right? WOW! How WRONG we were!

I work in Detroit, and commute down Eight Mile Road, from just west of Taft to I-275/I-96, every morning, and I have been, and continue to be, utterly appalled at the condition of Eight Mile Road. There are MANY days, especially during the winter months, that I must seek alternate routes to avoid the horrible road issues. This road, called "Baseline Road" because it intersects cities and counties for 45 miles through the Metropolitan Detroit area, from St. Clair Shores in the east, to Whitmore Lake in the west, intersects Wayne County on its southside, and Oakland County on the north through the communities of Northville and Novi. Herein lies the crux of the problem...Eight Mile is NEVER plowed or salted during the winter months and is ALWAYS the most difficult part of my commute. I have witnessed, on several occasions, Wayne County plows and salt trucks making U-turns at the Haggerty Road/I-275 intersection and returning from whence they came!

There have been numerous promises of upgrades, updates, and paving for our Baseline, including an April 2022 article in the Detroit Free Press, where Wayne County Commissioner Terry Marecki insisted that needed repairs and upgrades to Eight Mile were imminent, but only the usual ineffective patch jobs that do nothing other than rattle the teeth of commuters, and destroy suspension, exhaust systems, and tires of vehicles attempting to traverse this minefield daily, have occurred to date. This was followed up by Hometown Life in January of 2023, where Wayne County spokesperson Tiffani Jackson insisted that the worst parts of Eight Mile, between Novi Road and Haggerty Road, would have major restorative work done in the Spring of 2023, but that, obviously, did not happen. All of this is further complicated by the mysterious closure of two lanes on the bridge over Novi Road, with no repairs or repair crews ever visible, since April of 2021, with only a vague possibility of work commencing in Spring 2024, announced by the aforementioned Ms. Jackson, in the January of 2023 Hometown Life article.

Just this morning, Eight Mile is a scary commute, with large, jagged sections of ice frozen to the road, haphazardly spread across all lanes, causing cars to have difficulty stopping at traffic lights, and bouncing all over the road when hitting these large sections of ice! There has been ZERO salting or plowing...AGAIN, as has become de rigueur for both Oakland and Wayne County road crews, and a difficult winter commute has turned treacherous and bone-rattling. This problem persists into the warmer months, when the damage of winter driving on this ridiculously underserviced Baseline are ignored at worst, and given the "same old, same old" hot patch asphalt that lasts for a few days or hardens into another giant bump to lift the tires of cars off of the road, while going 50 miles per hour.

I have previously attempted to contact both Wayne County and Oakland County Road Commissions, via phone messages and emails, but to no avail. It seems like a rather simple fix, especially with Governor Whitmer's political invective of "Fix the Damn Roads" FINALLY coming to fruition across Michigan, and I cannot say it any better than our Governor...FIX OUR DAMN ROAD! Sincerely, Raymond Herrick, Northville, MI