Michigan is popularly known as the Great Lakes State because it is surrounded by four Great Lakes of America – Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie.
It also makes it a coastal state because 60% of coastlines run along these lakes, meaning it has many bridges and a total of 11,314.
However, of these more than 11 thousand bridges, 11% of 1,269 are in poor condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2023 Report Card for Michigan’s Infrastructure.
The ASCE gave the state’s bridges a D+ grade based on these criteria: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience, and innovation.
The report also notes the number of good conditions dropped to 35% in 2022 from 40% in 2018. and to repair Michigan’s bridges would need between $380 million to $510 million annually.
When a bridge has problems or has degraded, it limits vehicle weights and size, preventing the flow of goods and services and slowing down travel and emergency response. Although there have been one-time investments that helped worsen the bridge deterioration and funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will provide the finances for bridge work through 2026, more must be done to close the gap in the growing backlog of bridge repairs and improvements.
In a statement, Rob Coppersmith, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association, said it all comes down to investment. Coppersmith says:
“Decades of under-investment have led us to where we are today. Even with the Governor’s bonding program and a boost from the federal government, Michigan’s roads remain in poor condition. More is needed as Michigan faces a $3.9 billion annual shortfall in funding our roads and bridges.”
A 2022 report by TRIP, a national transportation research group that looked at state and federal data, examined and evaluated Michigan’s transportation future conditions and performance over the next decade based on three possible investment scenarios.
- Scenario A assumes expenditures based on current funding formulas, regardless of whether they are adequate to maintain or improve conditions and performance into the future.
- Scenario B supposes sufficient funding to maintain current conditions and performance into the future.
- Scenario C presumes funding that significantly improves both near-term and future conditions and performance.
Of the above scenarios, Scenario C, at $2,479 per household, offers the lowest cost to the average Michigan household annually in traffic crashes, delays caused by traffic congestion, extra vehicle operating costs due to driving on roads in poor condition, and in the cost to repair the state’s structurally deficient bridges compared to Scenario A and B at $ 6,273 and $4,694, respectively.
In 2022, the total state-wide cost of accidents, delays due to congestion, additional costs associated with driving on poor road conditions, and repairing bridges is $19.3 billion. By 2031, the report projects that it will cost $25 billion under Scenario A, $18.7 billion under Scenario B, and $10 billion under Scenario C.
The calculations above show that increased investments in transportation will yield the lowest transportation and household costs in the long term while increasing economic competitiveness because of improved transportation reliability and safer roads.
Where will the money come from?
The Michigan Transportation Infrastructure Needs and Funding Solutions Report released by Public Sector Consultants in Lansing says the state faces a $3.9 billion annual funding gap.
The PSC is also tasked by the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA) to offer solutions for raising additional revenue to close the funding gap, and here are their five ideas to raise the money: Increase the motor fuel tax for an extra 74 cents, assess tax on a per dollar rather than a per gallon basis, increase the sales tax to cover transportation funding, allow local government to enact their own sales taxes, and lastly, shift to a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) which will enable fee to be assessed on a per mile basis (Kinchen & Komer, 2023).
Meanwhile, the ASCE 2023 report offers the following recommendations on how to raise the grade of Michigan’s bridges.
First, Michigan leaders need to recognize the crisis of declining bridges and provide a substantial and sustainable asset management program to assist Michigan bridges.
Second, authorities must increase funding from all government levels for repair, rehabilitation, and replacement.
Third, the government must prioritize rehabilitating and preserving bridges in fair condition, as these bridges can often be maintained at a fraction of the cost of replacement if the work is performed promptly, and develop a balanced approach for our current aging bridge inventory that emphasizes preservation, rehabilitation, and replacement where necessary, while also setting aside funding for critical operation and maintenance.
Bridge owners should consider the costs across a bridge’s entire lifecycle using lifecycle cost analysis (LCCA) to make smart design decisions and prioritize maintenance and rehabilitation.
Sources:
2023 Report Card for Michigan’s Infrastructure. Michigan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE. Retrieved from https://fixmistate.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FullReport-MI_2023-REV.pdf
Where Are We Going? (April 2022). TRIP. Retrieved from https://tripnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/TRIP_Michigan_Where_Are_We_Going_Report_April_2022.pdf
Michigan roads remain in poor condition, pose risk for public; MITA calls for long-term infrastructure investment plan. (2023, May 8). MITA. Retrieved from https://thinkmita.org/michigan-roads-remain-in-poor-condition-pose-risk-for-public-mita-calls-for-long-term-infrastructure-investment-plan/
Michigan Transportation Infrastructure Needs and Funding Solutions. (2023, March 8). Public Sector Consultants. Retrieved from https://publicsectorconsultants.com/michigan-transportation-infrastructure-needs-and-funding-solutions/
Kinchen, D. & Komer, D. (2023, March 7). Study claims Michigan is $4 billion short to fix state roads, bridges. Fox 2. Retrieved from https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/study-claims-michigan-is-4-billion-short-to-fix-state-roads-bridges
Jaworowski, M. (2023, May 9). ‘Unacceptable’: Michigan’s roads, bridges earn D in annual report. UpMatters. Retrieved from https://www.upmatters.com/news/michigan-news/unacceptable-michigans-roads-bridges-earn-d-in-annual-report/
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