Listener Sara in Ann Arbor writes:
"Although I grew up in Michigan, I spent about 10 years living in Massachusetts. And when I lived out east, I never ever experienced the amount of road construction or poor road conditions that we experience in Michigan. And it makes me wonder, why are the roads so bad here?"
This is so Michigan! Who hasn’t got a story about the pothole that ended a brand new set of tires? As the birthplace of the American auto industry, so much of our built environment centers around road infrastructure. And yet, part of Michigan’s story is the decades of disinvestment in roads that have left regional road crews with seemingly endless work.
The Federal Highway Trust Fund has failed to keep pace with costs for some time now, causing headaches for every state. Every year, the American Society of Civil Engineers compiles a report card of infrastructure in the 50 states. The most recent ranking gave Minnesota and Ohio a D+ on roads. Michigan received a D grade. Great Lakes neighbor Wisconsin was was marked a solid C, and Massachusetts was rated with 49% of its roads listed in “fair” or “poor” condition.
Let’s take a look at some factors specific to Michigan road maintenance.
The numbers matter
One thing to consider is how much road we have to maintain. Consider this table from the Federal Highway Administration. (Keep in mind, for some stats like population and lane miles, you’re going to add three 0’s at the end - a common shorthand in federal data tables.)
As you check out our numbers, you can see we’re pretty close to our Great Lakes cousins in places like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in terms of how many road miles we’re maintaining. But there are other variables that play into road health: how much money the state takes in from fuel taxes, how much cash each state gets from the federal government, the number of drivers using the roads, and the total capital outlay each state sets aside for road maintenance.
Several assessments – including this one from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan - find our state underinvesting on maintenance needs.
Brent Schlack is a director of engineering, and Adam Lape is a director of operations for the Washtenaw County Road Commission. According to Schlack, one of the big challenges of the job is balancing road needs with cash on the table.
“We're trying to take the funding that we're allocated and trying to spread that funding as thin as possible to maintain all of our miles of road,” Schlack said. “And that's a challenge because…our roadway system is underfunded. And so we're having to take what we are given and trying to spread that as thin as possible.”
Asphalt hates lower peninsula winters
One thing the data tables can’t tell you is the effect weather has on highway maintenance.
Both Schlack and Lape talked about the effect recent winters have had on road quality.
“Once a road surface freezes, especially an unpaved surface,” Lape said, “it's essentially stable and everything underneath it is solid. And so you're just kind of working and cleaning off and polishing the ice down, almost like an ice rink... and then slowly melts its way out in the springtime.”
That’s fine if you live in the UP, where roads stay frozen all winter. But much of southern Michigan doesn’t get that kind of winter weather. In recent years, temperatures have hovered above and below the freezing point.
Brent Schlack said melted water “will then find its way into a crack within that pavement.” It freezes, and expands, and then repeats the cycle several times over, breaking up the asphalt.
More cracks lead to more potholes, which lead to more repair needs year-round.
An issue to campaign on
It’s impossible to talk about Michigan’s road woes without noting what a consuming topic they are with state leaders.
Lauren Gibbons, a reporter for Bridge Michigan, has written many times about why roads are an expensive fix - becoming more expensive every day. And she’s had a front-row seat for the perils for politicians who enter the trunkline fray.
“There are a lot of people who come to Lansing really hell-bent on fixing roads,” Gibbons said. “It's not just in recent years – this has been over decades. Lawmakers come to Lansing with that in mind. It's such an expensive prospect, because there are so many different issues around the state that cost a lot of money to fix.”
Also, she added, many newcomers find it difficult to take creative solutions that don’t involve throwing more money at the problem.
Adrian Hemond is the CEO of Grassroots Midwest, a consulting and advocacy firm in Lansing.
“The other thing, of course, is that transportation funding and transportation projects are extraordinarily complex,” said Hemond, a former Chief of Staff to Michigan’s House Minority leader. “When I worked on the Appropriations Committee, I had to be very reliant on my transportation analyst, because I couldn't get that far into the weeds. And that's the position most lawmakers are in. And so it's very difficult to make your case to lawmakers, let alone to voters about what needs to happen without some pretty deep expertise.”
The state is making some progress reversing the tide of disinvestment in road repairs. Governor Whitmer backed a large but controversial bond sale in 2020 to benefit road maintenance. She and the legislature agreed on a two-billion-dollar roads deal last fall, which made important structural changes to gas taxes.
With all the funding at stake for Michigan’s road maintenance, there’s no question that stakeholders can and do try to influence the appropriations process. But, for Sara and everyone else out there wondering about Michigan’s forest of orange barrels, the need is real. And, as Adrian Hemond put it, it's an evergreen issue.
“It's one of the things that government does that basically everyone interacts with.”
GUESTS:
- Maritza Garibay, Hamtramck resident
- Brent Schlack, Director of Engineering, Washtenaw Road Commission
- Adam Lape, Director of Operations, Washtenaw Road Commission
- Lauren Gibbons, Bridge Michigan reporter
- Adrian Hemond, CEO, Grassroots Midwest
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