LANSING, Mich (Michigan News Source) – Michigan’s county roads and bridges are $2.4 billion under funded annually if they are to keep up with maintenance aspirations, a new report indicates.
The 2023 Michigan County Road Investment Plan found that nearly $2.4 billion additional dollars are needed annually to work towards the 90% good/fair rating on the state’s 22,744 centerline miles of federal aid eligible county roads, and to achieve 60% good/fair ratings on the 30,716 miles of paved nonfederal aid eligible county roads.
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“It is clear that due to the exponential deterioration of the county road network, loss of purchasing power and very minimal growth in (the Michigan Transportation Fund) in the two years since our 2021 Investment Plan, that Michigan’s county road and bridge system is not on the path to 90% and 60% good roads,” the report says.
County Road Association Report:
The County Road Association (CRA) releases a biannual study that encompasses the various investments needed to maintain county roads and bridges across the state.
“This report monetizes the dollars needed to make meaningful progress in restoring county roads to the good/fair condition that our residents and visiting drivers expect,” said Denise Donohue, CRA CEO. “While we anticipated an inflationary increase in this updated Plan, we were a bit surprised to see the gap grow by $500 million in two years, even as our engineer consultant followed the same survey methodology as the last two Plans.”
The survey information was collected from August through October 2023 and analyzed between November and December of last year.
Increasing federal aid alone would not solve the road problems, according to those in charge of the study.
“While we’ve heard much about federal road dollars coming to Michigan in large batches, by law 75% of it goes to state highways. The remaining 25% is split between 614 municipal and county road agencies. Two-thirds of county roads don’t qualify for federal funds anyway,” said Ed Noyola, CRA chief deputy and legislative director.
Report Conclusions:
The 2023 Michigan County Road Investment Plan concluded:
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The statewide target investment for counties’ 90,000-mile, 5,900-bridge local network now stands at $4.1 billion annually. This is up from 2021’s $3.6 billion figure.
Of that $4.1 billion total need, nearly $1.8 billion in state revenue did go to county roads and bridges in FY 2021, according to the counties’ required MTF (PA 51) reports. Doing the math, an additional $2.4 billion annual investment is needed to improve 15% of the roads per year – the goal set by CRA.
Michigan is responsible for the nation’s fourth largest local road system, with 75% of road miles and 52% of bridges falling under County Road Agency jurisdiction.
“The 2023 Michigan County Road Investment Plan is a wake-up call about the significant, but solve-able, funding problem for Michigan county roads,” said CRA CEO Donohue. “The longer we kick the can down the road, the deeper the problem, and our potholes, will get.”
The full plan can be viewed here.
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