I agree completely, which is why I'd say the solution is to use a grid framework based on Sass or LESS instead of vanilla CSS (I'm partial to Orbital[1], but I'm biased because I wrote it :P). If your column sizing can be applied via preprocessor mixins instead of CSS classes, it's easy to keep your HTML free from nasty non-semantic classes. If you hunt around on GitHub, many popular CSS grids have unofficial LESS/Sass ports as well.

[1]: https://github.com/lorelabs/orbital