For the Detroit’s Sucher Tire Services Inc., it’s the best of times. The 96-year old business is serving more clients than it has in 30 years thanks to metro Detroit’s early start to “pothole season.”
For those not in the repair business, Michigan’s crumbling roads are deflating — and costly — to the tune of an average of $865 per motorist, according to transportation research firm TRIP, in annual repairs, an economic millstone for residents and businesses in a state that spends only $154 per person per year on roads.
Crumbling concrete and tire-tearing potholes are driving emergency road repairs and lane closures this winter as temperature swings and heavy traffic worsen Southeast Michigan’s already maligned roadways.
Roughly 56 percent of the metro region’s roads and highways are rated as poor by the U.S. Department of Transportation, ranking only behind earthquake-prone San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose.