Bridge Online Magazine: In-depth series regarding road funding
Bridge: News and Analysis from The Center of for Michigan today began a comprehensive series of articles today, titled Rough Road Ahead.
Today’s topics include the following:
Who’s to Blame for Michigan’s Road Crisis?
There is no shortage of fancy electronic charts, graphs and statistics to document the crumbling state of Michigan’s streets and highways.
Grand Rapids auto repair shop owner Jay Ziomkowski, though, charts it by the customers who walk through his door.
He recalled a recent winter, when “the roads were just horrific. Certain sections were like a bomb went off. You would get bent rims, blown tires. The struts would actually break off where they were mounted.”
“In West Michigan, evidence mounts of statewide road crisis”
A few weeks ago, Grand Rapids TV station WZZM posted a request on its Facebook page: Tell us about about the worst roads in West Michigan.
Comments poured in.
An Ottawa County resident described James Street, a road near Holland, as “horrible, has been for a long time. Not only filled with potholes but way too much traffic for only 3 lanes.”
“Bad roads throw up barriers to farmers, auto firms, tourists”
Matt Smego, legislative counsel of the Michigan Farm Bureau, said farmers are more reliant on the entire road network than other industries since they depend on secondary as well as primary roads.
“We have to be able to move farmers’ products to and from the market,” he said.
He recalled a farmer forced to deal with a closed bridge over a nearby creek.
“He had to take his farm equipment an additional five miles just to get to his farm,” he said.
On February 7, the series will review the political landscape for ideas on how Michigan can fill the transportation funding pothole.
