Trending
MARQUETTE -- Infrastructure in Michigan is in dire need of improvement and the state must raise an additional $4 billion annually to upgrade and maintain aging roads and other critical infrastructure like municipal water systems and broadband internet, a commission created by Gov. Rick Snyder recommended Monday.
The 21st Century Infrastructure Commission, formed by Snyder in January, delivered its 50-year vision for improving all facets of Michigan's infrastructure to local community leaders during a press conference in Dearborn that was broadcast at Northern Michigan University's Learning Resources Center.
According to a press release from Snyder, Michigan is the first state to develop a list of comprehensive infrastructure recommendations for water, transportation, energy and communications.
"Our state's infrastructure challenges are serious and wide-ranging, and we need to act with urgency to improve our infrastructure system and make Michigan a better place to live," Snyder said.
Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition board member Horst Schmidt, said he had concerns about current energy costs and investing in local government especially when it comes to state revenue sharing.
"If the infrastructure money comes through at anywhere close to what is being promised at this point, I think we will be in better shape, but looking at our current system of revenue sharing as I understand it, at least half of the revenue that the municipalities and counties used to get has not come back," Schmidt said. "So I am not sure how they are able to come forth with funding, we can't move forward on the local front because we have nothing to move forward with."
The report states that while the national average for total state and local capital spending is 10.2 percent from 2010 to 2014, spending in Michigan was 6.4 percent for the same time period.
According to the Associated Press, Michigan fell behind adjacent states including Indiana (9.9 percent), Ohio (9.2 percent) and Wisconsin (8.5 percent).
The commission said the funding for the $4 billion in investments could come from a combination of several sources including federal, state and local funding, and user fees and private investment.
The report sets goals for the future, with over 100 recommendations, but also shines a light on where state infrastructure stands today.
According to the report, some of the issues that face Michigan infrastructure systems are:
– Many of the states' 1,390 community water systems were built 50 to 100 years ago.
– Since 2008, an average of 5.7 billion gallons of untreated sewage flowed into state waterways annually.
– 25 percent of beaches were closed in 2015 due to concerns about E.coli contamination.
– 39 percent of roads in the state are in poor condition.
– 1,200 Michigan bridges are structurally deficient.
– Nearly half a million households are without advanced broadband internet.
The 27 member commission, comprised of individuals representing the business, government, nonprofit and academic communities, gathered information from the public in person at several listening tour stops and stakeholder meetings around the state as well as online, according to a press release from Snyder.
21st Century Commission Chair Evan Weiner, chief operating officer of Edw. C. Levy Co., said that while the state of Michigan's infrastructure today might be shocking, the information the commission collected in the report gives the state, counties and communities a starting point.
"We've ignored the challenges facing our infrastructure, most commonly because they are underground, we don't see them. But you need all infrastructure to work properly to really have good quality of life," Weiner said.
Weiner said even though the report is a comprehensive look at the information that could be gathered, there is still information that needs to be collected and compiled.
The commission looked around the country and around the world to see where the best practices of investment and return in infrastructure could be found, Weiner said.
The best examples were found in the United Kingdom, some states in Australia, and Ontario, Canada, Weiner said.
"They had something called asset management. Now there's bits and pieces that we do very well in Michigan, for example, the Michigan Department of Transportation has a good asset management plan," Weiner said.
Asset management can be defined, Weiner said, as a means to identify the current condition of the system, the performance of that system, and to predict what the condition of the system will be in terms of level of service five or 10 years from now.
"That's why we have engineers working on bridges and roads. You can go to MDOT's website and see here's five years of work going out -- and here's why," Weiner said.
Weiner said the findings of the commission were, in part, that the MDOT asset management model could be used as a goal for other infrastructure systems like water and sewer and broadband fiberoptic in developing a statewide asset management system.
Once the databases are compiled, information can be shared across the infrastructure system.
A road project could be coordinated, for example, with water, sewer and a gas main replacement as well as fiberoptic infrastructure, ensuring the road would only be torn up once and the costs could be shared by all the agencies involved in the project.
NMU Vice President of Finance and Administration Gavin Leach, who was the only Upper Peninsula representative on the commission, said he is in full support of the recommendations that were presented in the report as a first step in ensuring Michigan's infrastructure remains safe and efficient now and into the future.
"I think it is important to understand that the work is not over at this point," Leach said. "I believe this report creates a great long-term vision for the state, along with well-thought out strategies on how to address the challenges and achieve the vision. The report outlines our opportunities to work toward a sound and modern infrastructure, which is vital to the health and well-being of the people of Michigan."
Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-486-4401. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal.net.