A recently released report documents that the Michigan Department of Transportation's road and bridge program is worth millions of dollars in jobs and economic benefits to Michigan. The study found that MDOT's 2007-11 Highway Program will create 23,034 Michigan jobs in 2007, and will amount to $28.3 million of travel time savings for households and $7.1 million in travel time savings for businesses, which represents a reduced cost of doing business including truck-transported freight and employee commuter times. These savings will generate $1.4 billion in Gross State Product and create $1 billion in real personal income. The economic benefits analysis was completed by the University of Michigan's Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations with assistance from the Economic Development Research Group, Inc.

State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle said the results of the economic benefits analysis validated the department's belief that good roads lead to good jobs.