IIJA Funding to Fix Michigan’s Infrastructure – Is It Enough?

Michigan will finally receive the needed funding to fix its critical infrastructure.

Bridge Michigan’s “Michigan is spending big on infrastructure. Its problems are even bigger” reports that the state officials are celebrating a “historic” deal that will pump nearly $3 billion into aging infrastructure. This one-time funding is included in the larger $4.7 billion mid-year spending bill from The IIJA or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  

However, advocates say that the state should spend at least more than $3 billion annually to sufficiently update and maintain roads, bridges, drinking water, and dams and expand the broadband network.

The current inflation and price hikes can also reduce the value of infrastructure funding.

Before this budget was appropriated, the state did not know about PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances), a drinking water contaminant found in more than 200 Michigan locations. Removing this contaminant from their drinking water means more cost.

The article highlights where the state will invest the federal money from the federal stimulus and infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden on 15 November 2021.

Roads, bridges, and other transportation projects are allocated $645 million and $251 million to expand high-speed internet connections in Michigan’s rural and remote areas.

Money will also go to upgrading water infrastructure or replacing lead service lines to ensure that the Flint crisis won’t happen again. But the amount allocated for water upgrade will only cover two and a half years of the recommended 20 years to replace all lead pipes. Experts estimated it will cost the state as much as $2.5 billion through 2041.

Some of the funds also include one-time funding for local governments to upgrade drinking systems and lead service line replacement which covers two communities – $45 million for Benton Harbour, where residents still drink from bottled water, and $75 million for Detroit, which has an estimated 80,000 lead service lines.

Funds are also allocated to address PFAS and other contaminants in the water system.

Addressing Michigan’s combined sewer and stormwater overflows

More than 40 Michigan communities, mainly in Metro Detroit, have combined sewer and stormwater overflows.

These basins can usually retain discharges under normal circumstances unless during heavy rain events, when their capacities are exceeded, partially treated waste goes into the lake and rivers, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency considers a threat to the environment.

Separating sewer and stormwater pipes is very expensive. Still, Grand Rapids in West Michigan chose to do it by using $400 million in bonds, which will take taxpayers nearly three decades to pay.

Some communities that still have combined sewer and stormwater overflows, like Macomb County, were given US$72 million to address combined sewer overflows, pumping capacity, and sewer rehabilitation to reduce wastewater discharges into the environment. 

Despite IIJA funds and the $3.5 billion bonding program, almost half of Michigan’s roads will be in much worse shape in 2030 than it is today, according to the state’s Transporation Asset Management Council, the article says.

Michigan’s TAMC finding is quite sobering despite the millions of dollars poured to repair the state’s roads and highways in the short term.

But for now, state officials and policymakers must remain optimistic and focus on fixing the country’s infrastructure, spending federal funds wisely despite the state’s many challenges of insufficient funds and higher costs.

Michigan has made good progress in infrastructure asset management analysis, enabling the current discussion regarding the size, cost, and remedies for the state’s infrastructure deficit.