696 Reversal

Yesterday  I got to drive on Highway 696 on the wrong side of the road --legally. 

Indeed, there was nowhere else to go on the Highway.

This felt very weird.  

You got to see the back of the signs as you zipped along

Traffic going westbound had been moved to the eastbound lanes, and eastbound traffic sent elsewhere.

A rather unique experience to zip along the highway while everything is feeling rather backwards. 

Surprise: Not Only Do Michigan Roads Suck, But The Quality Control Does Too!

Well, surprising no one really, there's a very cozy relationship between the state road agency and the contractors that "fix" the damn roads.

That cozy relationship extends to a lack of competent quality testing, resulting in you guessed it - roads that don't even meet the already low quality standards in this state.

The Detroit Free Press: MDOT fails to ensure quality of gravel used in Michigan road projects, audit shows

I mean, our current road construction and quality standards are great - if this state was Georgia.  

For Michigan, however, with our winters even our current standards are not enough, and the state can't or will not even enforce those basic standards. 

So much for Gov. "Fix the damn roads" Whitmer - it's now over four years and she can't even ensure her own agency is holding the (union) road construction companies to the bare minimums, or her own state agencies to do their own damn jobs.

This is but one of the reasons why Michigan has some of the highest gas taxes and spending on roads, and yet continues to have some of the worst roads in the nation.

Media: When Republicans Point Out The Truth, it's An "Attack"

When a Republican points out facts about Democrats, the Media reports it as an attack or that "Republicans pounce", not about the failure/foible of the Democrat in question

For example:

The Detroit Free Press: New Michigan GOP ad attacks Whitmer's pledge to 'fix the damn roads'

For all of Gov Half-Whit's laser-like focus on "fixing the damn roads" - in between trying her best to shut the state down and rule like an autocrat, the results of her 4 years of effort have been, well underwhelming. 

According to estimates from the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council, the percentage of all Michigan roads that are in poor shape today — around 40% — is about the same as when Whitmer was elected, though the percentage of roads in good shape has ticked up by 4 percentage points.

So, four years of maximum Whitmer effort has resulted in the same amount of roads rated poor and only added 4% to the roads in good shape metric.

Most impressive.

One can only wonder what would have happened to the roads had she not been so focused, the thought is just too terrible to contemplate.

Why We Can't Have Nice Things - Michigan Roads Edition

Michigan roads are renowned as being rather lousy. So much so that there is a marked difference as you cross the state line with Ohio, even as there's never-ending road work in Toledo.

So why can't we have nice roads like Toledo?

One of the reasons is our rather inflated road construction cost.

The Detroit Free Press: Conner Street to get $4M in roadwork ahead of FCA Mack plant opening

That 4 million dollars will resurface all of 2 miles of road.

Yep, it's now $2 million per mile to fix a road. Hardly a bargain.

But hey! At least it'll have bike lanes right for those two miles beside a automotive factory, which is clearly something that every cyclist will want to cycle on by.

Why We Can't Build Nice Roads - Because To Even Fix 18 Miles Of Road Will Take 14 Years

Yes, you read that right, for a stretch of 18 miles of I75 in Michigan, it will take 14 years at a cost of 1.3 billion dollars, or 72 million dollars per mile to fix.

Oh, and it will take 14 years to do it, giving a snail's pace of an average 1.3 miles per year.

Of course by the end of 14 years they're going to have to start fixing what they started 14 years ago...

The Detroit News: I-75 work launches between Troy and Bloomfield Twp.

Yes, it will include fixing quite a few vehicular and pedestrian bridges over the highway and adding a lane so it's not a little job, but still to schedule a repair of 18 miles over 14 years is certainly the very opposite of an aggressive schedule.

Speaking of the addiitonal lane, while the added lane would be a darn good idea and badly needed, they're going to take away a lot of the benefits of the additional lane in reducing congestion by making it an HOV-only lane, not to mention that in 14 years when this is finally done they may need to add yet another lane.

Constructing Down the Highway....

The Detroit News: MDOT ready for highway repairs

In total, MDOT will award about $179 million in contracts this year to improve 87 miles of pavement and repair 67 bridges in the [Detroit] Metro area

Thankfully, they won't be completely shutting a highway down this year, so we at least have that to look forward to once spring arrives.

However, as with all Blue State Model projects, the costs are going up and actual amount accomplished is going down:

We're doing a lot of resurfacing projects this year," the spokesman [Robert Morosi] said. "As an example, for $5 million, we can resurface three lanes of a five-mile stretch of freeway, which will extend the life of the roadway by five to seven years. That same $5 million would only allow us to reconstruct one mile of one lane of the same freeway."

When it takes $5 million dollars to reconstruct just one mile of highway, or to put it in perspective, about $1000 per foot of highway, you know your costs are just plain out of control.

On the upside, the mild weather we're having is saving money on salt and plowing costs:

Morosi said MDOT also has no complaints about the mild weather for the 2011-12 winter.

"So far this year, our expenditure for this winter is $12.8 million," Morosi said. "This same time for last year we spent $21.3 million. We could still get slammed this winter, but so far, so good."

Mild winter weather is certainly a plus for saving the state some money, heck we can reconstruct almost 2 miles of a highway with the savings!

Because Proposing to Raise Taxes is Such a Winning Idea.....

The Detroit Free Press: Gov. Rick Snyder to propose $40 annual fee to fix roads

In addition to the new $40 fee that would be in addition to existing levies, he'd change how the current gas tax is applied. The change would be from a fixed amount at the retail level to a percentage base at the wholesale level (this will lead to higher gas prices in Michigan).

Of course, the money collected won't just go to fix roads, but will be yet another tax on drivers to fund yet more mismanaged mass transit.

The fee would also go for a new mass transit authority for the southeast Michigan region with New. High-Speed. Buses. (because the current ones are such models of workability). On the upside at least he's not pushing New. High-Speed. Rail.

As pointed out by Right Michigan, this is practically the same proposal made by Granholm no being resold under an (R) brand.

How about this - use the sales tax collected on gas and other fees on vehicles to actually fix the roads first before more quixotic subsidies of mass transit public employees unions. Then, when the roads are up to the standards of say, Ohio, we can talk about diverting funding from road repair, construction to reduce congestion and maintenance to these mass transit boondoggles.

Getting Michigan's road up to and one would think beyond Buckeye quality should be a competition we can get behind and should be quite doable if the funding is actually put towards it rather than diverted to the general fund or endless subsidies of government happy projects.

Road From The War of 1812 Featured in the Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Free Press: Downriver War of 1812 trail gets its due
A road built through a swamp built out of logs for the movement of troops in the War of 1812 is featured in the Detroit Free Press today.

607 of the original logs are still in place and a visible marker of "Hull's Trace", the road built by General William Hull with that section built around July 4, 1812.

Pretty impressive that the remains of the log road are still there, almost 200 years later.

As yet another example of the more things change, the more they stay the same, people were bitterly complaining about the lousy conditions of Michigan's roads back then, much as they continue to do so today.

Michigan's Inefficient Spending on Roads - The Fort Street Rebuild As An Example

Part of the reason Michigan's roads are in such terrible condition, compared to other states is not just that work and maintenance has simply not been done, but the sheer cost of the repairs.

To repair 1.2 miles of one road including an overpass will cost approximately $40 Million dollars.

Crumbling Fort Street to undergo overhaul

Drivers who've put up with a bumpy stretch of Fort Street and one of the region's most notoriously decrepit bridges will have a chance to see plans next week for $40 million in upgrades to the roadway and the overpass in southwest Detroit....That's what the Michigan Department of Transportation has in store for Fort between Schaefer Highway and Oakwood Boulevard in Detroit -- roughly between the Fort-Schaefer I-75 exit and the Rouge River. The project is scheduled to begin next summer and last through late 2011.

$40 Million dollars to repair all of 1.2 miles? At that rate the state will run out of money long before it runs out of roads to fix.

Certainly it is time the state looks into how to control the costs of road maintenance. I remember when $1 million per mile was absurd, but $40 million is just plain nuts. Whether it means streamlining the process, dropping favored clauses and padding from contracts and getting real performance bids, or reexamining all the costs involved, something needs to be done.

Making matters worse on the Fort street project is the overpass itself, namely that

Despite its condition, the overpass is on the National Register of Historic Places, MDOT spokesman Rob Morosi said , and can't be redesigned.

An overpass as a historic site? Yes, it really is:

Fort Street--Pleasant Street and Norfolk & Western Railroad Viaduct [Image]

URL: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/00000116.pdf
Link will open in a new browser window
URL: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/00000116.pdf
Link will open in a new browser window
Publisher: National Park Service
Published: 02/18/2000
Access: Public access
Restrictions: Public domain
Is Part Of: Highway Bridges of Michigan MPS
Format/Size: Physical document with text, photos and map
Language: eng: English
Note: Fort St. over Pleasant St. and N&W RR.
Item No.: 00000116 NRIS (National Register Information System)
Subject: EVENT
Subject: ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING
Subject: COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Subject: ENGINEERING
Subject: TRANSPORTATION
Subject: STRUCTURE
Subject: 1925-1949
Keywords: Wayne County Road Commission;1928
Place: MICHIGAN -- Wayne County -- Detroit

Record Number: 133203
Record Owner: National Register of Historic Places

No idea what it or its designer did for it to be so designated, but who knows how much extra that adds to the cost of repair, not to mention it can't be updated for safety or improved traffic flow.

In any case, $40 million for 1.2 miles is simply too much.

Is there any tax the Detroit Free Press doesn't like?

The answer seems to be no.

Indeed, the Freep is pushing for higher gas taxes for road repair.

In Pave the way for better road funding

In it, the Freep editorial enthusiastically states

Task force members ought to entertain any reasonable alternative, including toll roads, substituting a higher sales tax for the gas tax, and odometer taxes that charge motorists for mileage. They must also consider ways to get more money to Michigan's inadequate public transportation systems.

Yes, Michigan's roads are in sorry shape, the result of years of government neglect, environmental conditions, and having some of the heaviest loaded trucks in the country driving on them constantly.

More taxes are not the answer however. We already have some of the most expensive gas in the nation as not only does Federal and the State gas tax raise the cost, buyt Michigan's sales tax is also applied. It would not be difficult to designate the sales tax revenue from gas sales to road construction, which would provide considerable revenue to help alleviate the funding crunch.

Failing that, road repair and construction should be a priority and not only proceeds from the gas tax but other general funds should be designated to repair the roads in order to bolster Michigan's economy and keep goods and people moving in good and safe order. There is already sufficient revenue, what it will take is a decision to apply it to fixing the state's infrastructure - a decision that should have been made long ago but needs to be made and committed to now.

Michigan gas prices highest in nation thanks to our sales tax

Michigan currently has the highest gas prices in the nation according to the Detroit News.

One reason is that we're at the end of the gas pipeline and its more expensive to ship it here from the refineries.

The other reason is that Michigan levies a 6% sales tax on top of the price of gas amnd all other federal and state taxes levied upon it. Yes, we're paying a tax on a tax. Further addding insult to injury, the only tax the sales tax is levied upon is the 19 cents road tax that is a fixed amount that doesn't change with the price of gas.

So gas can go up, we pay more taxes, the state gets more money and our roads worsen all at the same time.

Some of this windfall the state is experiencing from the increased take in sales taxes should be directed back towards fixing the roads and building new ones to enhance our infrastructure, which badly needs it. -- good luck on that happening.

Instead the state wants to raise the Road Tax on top of the already exorbitant take it is getting from the sales tax, thereby ensuring that Michigan is #1 in something - namely the price of gasoline.

Michigan's State Flower in Full Bloom

And a flower of terrible beauty it is.

It is a perennial flower, impervious to rain, snow, harsh weather conditions and rough soils. Practically unkillable with no known natural predators, where one is somehow destroyed, dozens more spring up in its place.

Popping up everywhere in Michigan with a vicious fecundity, this flower brings with it encumberances as everywhere traffic snarls while people ponder its terrible beauty and portent-laden meaning.


The Michigan state flower of course looks like this: