Oakland County runs from Ferndale and Royal Oak on the Detroit line north through Troy, Southfield, Farmington Hills, Novi and Rochester Hills into lake country. It is a county of many small jurisdictions, each with its own paperwork, and one large road agency that owns most of the roads outside the cities. Knowing which of them governs your driveway is half of getting it done properly.
Troy, Southfield, Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills, Madison Heights, Berkley, Oak Park, West Bloomfield and Bloomfield townships, and the lake communities further out. The county has 63 communities in all, so if yours is missing, ask.
By the county's own count, Oakland has about 1,450 lakes, rivers and streams and the headwaters of five river systems in its 907 square miles. Away from the flat inner suburbs, that means lots that fall toward a lake or a creek, and driveways with real slope on them.
Slope changes how a drive wears. Rain and snowmelt from the house, the lawn and the road run down the asphalt instead of sitting on it, and they follow the edges and any crack that runs downhill. Where a drive dips at the bottom toward the street, water collects and freezes right at the approach. A quote on a sloped drive looks at where the water goes, and a sealing day on one needs dry weather either side so the coat is not washed downhill.
The Road Commission for Oakland County looks after more than 2,700 miles of county roads, including the roads in the townships, and it uses an average of about 64,000 tons of salt a winter, spread at roughly 400 pounds per two-lane mile. By its own figures, salt starts to lose its effect below 20F and does almost nothing at 10F, which is why cold snaps leave packed snow on the roads for days.
All of that brine ends up somewhere, and a lot of it ends up at the bottom of driveways, thrown off by plows and dripped from cars. Salt keeps meltwater liquid long enough to soak into cracks and joints, and the apron and the first few feet of the drive take the worst of it. Those are the spots to fill first and to watch each spring.
If your drive meets a county road, the approach is the Road Commission's business. Its fee schedule lists $100 for paving an existing residential driveway approach (remove and replace, or repair) and $150 for a new one, doubled if work starts before the permit is issued, with about ten working days to process and a width at the road of 10 to 25 feet. If your drive meets a city street, the city issues it. From each city's published material:
None of these treats resealing an existing drive as permit work. Replacement and new paving are different in Novi, Birmingham and West Bloomfield, and the quote says so.
In a township it usually is. In a city it usually is not, except for the main roads. The quote checks before anything is applied for.
No. Royal Oak exempts one and two family homes from its on-site paving permit.
Dry weather on both sides of the job, and a look at where the water leaves the drive.
Nearby: Wayne County to the south and Macomb County to the east.
