The Michigan Department of Transportation is delaying or postponing hundreds of bridge and road projects because of budget problems — including five projects in Shiawassee County.
MDOT is faced with a shortfall of at least $84 million to match available federal funding beginning in 2011, due to the declining state gas tax and vehicle registration revenues.
Because of the shortfall, MDOT will have to work on a reduced highway program, causing a delay of 100 pavement improvement projects, more than 375 miles of road repairs, and more than 575 bridge repair projects.
In Shiawassee County five of the six projects planned will be delayed, including the 3.272 miles of milling and road resurfacing of M-21, Chestnut Street to M-52.
Other projects in Shiawassee County that are being delayed are the bridge replacement of M-71 over I-69; deep overlay and full paint of the bridge at State Road on I-69; the deck replacement of the M-71 bridge over Holly Drain; culvert replacement for the M-52 bridge over Vermillion Creek; and the milling and resurfacing of the carpool parking lot on the northwest quadrant of I-69 and Grand River Avenue.
M-52 to Ardelean will be the only project that will not be delayed. Even so, the project is not scheduled to begin for at least a few years.
Transportation planner for MDOT University Region Paul Lott said the project, which was originally suppose to begin in 2013, will be moved forward to start in 2012 instead because of the other projects being delayed.
Amy Lindstrom, a transportation planner and state transportation improvement program coordinator, said the project will cost about $7.6 million to complete.
The University Region serves 10 counties in south-central Michigan: Clinton, Eaton, Hillsdale, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe, Shiawassee and Washtenaw counties.
“All the (projects) that got cut have needs. It’s all based on funding.” said Lott. “Each region was cut proportionally.”
The five-year transportation program for the University Region planned to spend $164 million for the road and bridge program from 2010 to 2014. The funding plans were broken down as: road preservation, $80 million; bridge preservation, $11 million; and road and bridge capital preventive maintenance, $73 million.
Maintenance projects are planned for a significant number of pavements and structures that do not require extensive repairs during this five-year transportation program period. Such projects are short-term fixes, adding five to 10 years of life to pavement or maintaining the existing structure condition.
The five-year transportation program included approximately 132 miles of roads out of the 1,333 miles in the University Region. The plan also included 57 bridges and structures out of the 985 in the region.
With the shortfall of money, the total cost and the amount of miles of road and number of bridges are reduced.
“It’s getting very difficult for townships to get decent roads. There’s just no money. We are doing the best we can,” Perry Township Supervisor Sid Grinnell said.
Fairfield Township Supervisor Les Loynes agreed, “We lost the state (money) to keep the roads up. We have the millage, but it doesn’t help to get everything done.”
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