Michiganians have daily encounters with aging, crumbling and failing infrastructure.
Our cars shake, rattle and roll down some of the nation’s worst roads. The Flint water crisis makes state and national news. Sinkholes from failing sewers swallow homes and crumble roads in Fraser and, just last month, in Hamburg Township. E coli contamination closes nearly 100 Michigan beaches every summer. Billions of gallons of sewage spill into the Au Sable River, the Huron River, the Kalamazoo River, the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, Lake Michigan and other Michigan rivers, bays and lakes. At this very moment, hundreds of dams across Michigan long ago exceeded their design lives.
Michigan’s infrastructure (our roads and bridges, sewers, dams, drinking water systems) just received a “D” grade — again — from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Michigan voters totally understand our infrastructure is a mess. In two recent polls, voters said fixing Michigan’s infrastructure is the top issue facing our state. Fixing infrastructure is a top priority issue for the business community — from the Detroit Regional Chamber to the Grand Rapids Area Chamber to Business Leaders for Michigan.
Following months of research and public meetings, the Governor’s 21st Century Infrastructure Commission in December and Business Leaders for Michigan in January concluded that fixing Michigan’s infrastructure will cost $4 billion more, each year, for about the next 20 years.
READ MORE AT: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2017/05/18/column-fix-michigans-roads/101815274/