Transportation network “crumbling beneath us.” Study says $6 billion needed to fix Michigan’s roads

It sounds like a horror film: Bridges and roads falling apart; buses, planes and trains stopped dead in their tracks; and no help from the federal government.

A report issued by the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation Funding says that is what Michigan is facing unless state policymakers find ways to pay for transport needs.

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  “We have a transportation network that is literally crumbling beneath us,” says committee Chair Gretchen Driskell.

The report says Michigan will lose an average of $950 million in federal road funds beginning in 2010 because the state is unable to match federal dollars. It claims a total of 23,000 miles of highway lanes will need to be repaired or replaced by 2015, but the expected funding will pay for only 876 miles.

The report also says intercity bus routes could be slashed by as much as 50 percent and commercial flights could be cancelled.

The advisory committee report says Michigan’s roads and bridges will require an estimated annual investment of $6.1 billion — nearly two times the current funding level — for basic improvements, and without this investment, an additional 30 percent of Michigan roads will decline to poor condition over the next decade. In addition the state’s transit system will need $470 million annually, and the aeronautics system will need $120 million to provide necessary improvements to the system.

Driskell says: “This lack of funding is limiting our public transit options and threatening to make many of our roads and bridges unsafe. The status quo essentially guarantees our transportation system will continue to collapse.”

The 19-member committee was appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm earlier this year. Its next task is studying ways to pay for transportation projects without raising the state’s gasoline tax.

The report can be found at www.michigan.gov.tf2