Ferndale eyes maintenance of dozens of roads in 2026

FERNDALE — Ferndale will be busy keeping its roads maintained this year.

The City Council, at its Jan. 12 meeting, approved a $70,990 contract for its pavement joint and crack sealing program.

The construction, to be done by Wolverine Sealcoating, will consist of work to extend pavement life, reduce water infiltration and delay more costly roadway rehabilitation.

Director of Public Works James Jameson said the construction, which would happen when the weather breaks and is most likely a summer project, is preventative maintenance to make sure the city gets 20 to 25 years out of its asphalt.

“Asphalt just cracks because of weather,” he said. “Cold weather, warm weather expansion, and it naturally cracks. And then we fill it with crack sealing so that way water doesn’t get into it, freeze into ice and then further break it up. Because of that, the pavement just naturally lasts longer because it’s not being degraded with ice water.”

According to city documents, more than 50 streets are targeted for maintenance. This includes major roadways, such as Hilton and Nine Mile roads, to dozens of residential streets.

The city will coordinate with its civil engineering firm, Giffels Webster, to create a plan of what roads to tackle.

“We try to crack seal every roadway at least every six years,” Jameson said. “Basically, you take your roads, you split them up into thirds. Sometimes you have to move up the schedule on others, but, perfect world, you do … the first third of your roads year two, then you do the second third of your roads year four, and then year six, you’ve completed all of your roads with the final third. And then you start the process over again until the roads are repaved.”

In evaluating the state of Ferndale’s roads in 2026, Mayor Pro Tem Laura Mikulski stated she was pleased with where the city was at with its maintenance.

Ferndale recently completed its 10-year, $43 million bond work that was approved in 2015, and the city is focused on keeping up with the maintenance of its roads.

“A town that gets snow and super cold temperatures, you want to make sure that you’re sealing cracks so you don’t get water intrusion and have all that asphalt that we paid for break up,” she said. “So. I expect more of that in the future so that we can extend the life of the roads as long as possible.”

As of right now, Mikulski said, the biggest road to keep an eye on that needs the most maintenance is Nine Mile.

“Our road bond covered our residential streets. Our major roads, I feel like we have some work to do,” she said. “Nine Mile in particular has some spots on it that appear to be deteriorating a little bit quickly. So, we’re looking at things like that as potentially a next step.”