Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC) has delivered the Michigan 2017 Roads and Bridges Annual Report to the Michigan Legislature and the State Transportation Commission. The report summarizes road and bridge conditions and provides condition projections into the future. The report also provides a synopsis of TAMC program activities and events over the past year.
During 2017, the TAMC rated the pavement condition of the paved federal-aid eligible roads for the fourteenth consecutive year. This data collection included 63% of some 88,000 lane miles of paved roads in Michigan, including State Freeways and Highways, City Major Streets and County Primary Roads. This effort was achieved through a cooperative effort of individuals from county road agencies, city and village engineering staffs, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), regional planning agencies, and metropolitan planning organizations. In addition, the TAMC also collected pavement conditions on some of Michigan’s paved non-federal aid eligible roads as well.
In terms of surface condition, the report reveals continued deterioration of Michigan’s federal aid eligible roads. The 2017 condition data indicates 20% of these roads are in good condition, 40% are in fair condition, and 40% are in poor condition; in 2016, the breakdown was 18% good, 43% fair, and 39% poor. The report further indicates that while the condition of nearly 17% of roads improved in 2017, the condition of nearly 20% of pavements fell from “good” to “fair” or from “fair” to “poor.” Michigan’s roads are on a continuous deterioration cycle.
The report also includes data on the condition of all public bridges in Michigan, where the trend is similar. An analysis of the 2017 bridge condition data indicates that state and local bridge condition will begin to decline after this year, as 11.3% of bridges deteriorated while only 6.3% were improved. This year’s report also shows that Michigan has 10.3% of bridges rated as “structurally deficient.” By way of comparison with other Midwest states, Michigan has a significantly higher percentage of structurally deficient bridges than other Great Lakes states, with Indiana having 7.1%, Illinois 8.3%, Minnesota 5.3%, Ohio 5.8% and Wisconsin 7.8% structurally deficient bridges.
For a copy of the report please click on the following link. TAMC 2017 Annual Report To visit the Transportation Asset Management Council website please click here.
John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State and Federal Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.