On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations with state Sen. John Damoose and Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA) Chairman Patrick “Shorty” Gleason about legislation to shore up protections of the bridge from trespassers. 

The Senate voted unanimously on March 13 in support of Senate Bill 71, which now heads to the House. 

This comes three years after some troubling incidents on the bridge involving people climbing a tower or otherwise trying to access the bridge to take photos, and another involving a bomb threat that closed the bridge on a busy weekend and disrupted travel for many hours. The MBA took the rare step at the time of adopting a resolution supporting the key facility designation. 

The Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill, sponsored by then-state Rep. John Damoose, 99-6, in 2022, classifying the Mighty Mac and several other vital structures in the state as key facilities. The legislation later stalled in the Michigan Senate. Now, the Senate has reported out, unanimously, the new bill, sponsored by now state Sen. Damoose, which is narrower in focus, applying strictly to the Mackinac Bridge. The designation means trespassing on the bridge would be a felony offense. 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, an update from Ryan McMahon of Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a Massachusetts-based firm that tracks data from drivers, participating voluntarily with their insurance carriers, to analyze statistics and driver behavior. 

McMahon spoke on the podcast previously, including a few months after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the law making it illegal to use a hand-held electronic device while driving.

His analysis includes data on distracted driving in Michigan broken down by county. His firm is reporting updated numbers that show meaningful strides in the right direction. 

McMahon also cites preliminary data showing a reduction in crashes in Michigan in 2024.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Sam Krassenstein, chief of infrastructure and Department of Public Works deputy director, for the City of Detroit. 

Krassenstein talks about many things, including the challenges of right-sizing streets built to accommodate more vehicles in an era before freeways were built, how safe mobility and accessibility play into the recovery of the city’s neighborhoods, and the innovative thinking going into the I-375 and US-12 (Michigan Avenue) projects.

Last May, Sen. Gary Peters invited Krassenstein to testify before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight and Ports on the subject of community solutions to the roadway safety crisis.

Krassenstein explains why this is so important as part of those efforts to right-size some streets and make for safer crossings.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Zach Kolodin, the state’s chief infrastructure officer, breaks down the highlights of a road funding plan released by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office on Monday, Feb. 10.

Kolodin first talks briefly about federal grants the state and many municipalities have received the past few years. Among some large grants for state roads and bridges was a $73 million award to replace an aged movable bridge in Bay City. 

Talking about the governor’s road-funding plan, Kolodin explains how removing the sales tax on fuel, which does not fund roads and bridges, would allow for every penny drivers spend at the pump to go toward road repairs.

The plan would backfill the sales tax with a combination of cuts and additional revenue from closing the wholesale tax loophole on marijuana and assessing other fees.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Zach Rable, a federal policy specialist at the Michigan Department of Transportation, who talks about priorities for funding as a new Congress convenes.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) will expire in September 2026, and members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are in early discussions about the next reauthorization and what it should include. Three members of the committee are from Michigan: Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City.

Some key points from an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) analysis of the IIJA:

• The IIJA reauthorizes surface transportation programs, with 34 percent more funding than the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act provided.
• The IIJA provided close to $500 billion for road and bridge programs in communities across America.
• The act included 21 new DOT grant programs that will make targeted investments to repair bridges, improve the resiliency of our surface transportation system, and more.
• These funds go a long way to address the $1.2 trillion, 10-year surface transportation funding gap that ASCE identified in the 2021 Report Card.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Art Green, manager of the Grand Rapids Transportation Service Center, about some federal grants announced recently for his area.

But first, Green talks about his experience with extreme winter events in Grand Rapids, like this week’s lake-effect snow and extended sub-zero temperatures. Much of the focus in questions to transportation agencies on social media channels focuses on salt and a lack of understanding about how it loses effectiveness in very cold temperatures.

Green explains how the department maximizes its salt use and mixes in other mitigation efforts.

A $25 million grant will help rebuild the vital East Beltline Avenue bridge at the junction with I-196 and I-96 east of Grand Rapids. Green explains that the new bridge will feature nonmotorized connections for trails to the north and south of the interchange. It will also ease congestion on some of the ramps.

He also talks about a grant to support planning for better connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists between the east and west sides of US-131 just north of downtown Grand Rapids.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Brian Travis, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project manager overseeing the rebuilding of the central segment of I-696.

The work will begin in March and continue through most of 2027, and involves closing the eastbound lanes of I-696 from M-10 and Lahser Road east to I-75.

Travis explains that this is the last of three phases of the "Restore the Reuther" project, a $275 million rebuilding of the freeway. In 2019, the state completed work along the easternmost portion, along with the western end in 2023 and 2024.

A complete closure makes sense, Travis says, for the safety of drivers and the construction contractor’s employees.

Travis also talks about the history of the freeway, which was originally conceived as I-98 in the earliest discussion of the Interstate system. The center segment was completed years later than the eastern and western portions because of various obstacles, including a lack of agreement among community leaders on the corridor about the exact route. Progress came about only after then-Michigan Gov. George Romney forced the various leaders to gather in a room and come to an agreement.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Mike Kapp, who directs the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Office of Economic Development (OED). 

Kapp explains the origins of the office and how its various programs provide benefits to communities across the state. He also breaks down the six categories that make up the program. 

Later, Kapp talks about the office’s 2024 accomplishments, including distributing $23.1 million in Category A grant funds, which: 

• Generated $4.5 billion in private investment,
• Supported 4,414 jobs, and
• Resulted in $262 in private investment for every public dollar. 

See all of the OED’s accomplishments online.

On this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Margaret Barondess, a manager in the Michigan Department of Transportation's (MDOT) environmental section who is retiring from state government, reflects on her career.

More than 50 years ago, Congress adopted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Barondess, who worked for MDOT for 33 years, explains how the act informs planning for transportation projects in Michigan and department efforts to at once protect our air, waterways, wildlife, and plants and minimize inconvenience to travelers.

While critics of NEPA have argued for scaling back the need for environmental impact statements, supporters tout NEPA's role in saving money, time, lives, historical sites, endangered species and public lands while encouraging compromise and cultivating better projects with more public support.

Barondess also talks about the challenges and rewards she and her team have experienced in recent years, including the success protecting some threatened species on a segment of I-75 in Monroe County with a corridor conservation action plan. 

On this week’s episode of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Brad Wieferich, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, talks about his background overseeing development and design of road projects and the challenge of balancing mobility and safety.

With strong winds churning up lake-effect snow on Michigan’s western lakeshore, police agencies have reported dozens of crashes. Despite ongoing messages from law enforcement and safety advocates, drivers often fail to drive to the conditions.

Wieferich talks about what officials learned from a study conducted after a 193-vehicle pileup on I-94 near Galesburg resulted in the Michigan State Police issuing 58 citations.  

Also discussed:

• The Legislature, following about half of all states, approved bills allowing for the use of safety cameras in work zones. Wieferich explains the benefits.
• Challenges in transportation going into 2025.

As lower Michigan braces for the first significant snowfall of the seasons, we’re reprising a Talking Michigan Transportation episode from when the department launched a program to name snow plows. 

This episode features a conversation with Iain McDonald of Transport Scotland, about their program to name the plows, or “gritters” as they call them. 

Later, MDOT’s Nick Schirripa joined the conversation to talk about some of the creative names people submitted for plows here.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Timothy Gates, associate chair for undergraduate studies of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan State University, talks about a new report on the use of seat belts and hand-held devices by Michigan drivers.

The report shows 92 percent of front-seat occupants in Michigan wear seat belts, down from 92.4 percent in 2023 and 92.9 percent in 2022.

Gates talks about the demographic breakdown within those numbers, which show younger male drivers are less likely to wear seat belts. He also discusses the different kinds of drivers who populate the roads in the wake of the pandemic, as remote work remains the norm for more white-collar workers.

Also discussed: speeding continues to be a problem post-pandemic, Gates says. 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about mental health challenges for people who build and maintain roads and bridges. 

Gregg Brunner, chief engineer and chief operations officer at the Michigan Department of Transportation, spoke about the issue last month on a panel convened by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

As someone who has spent a career focusing on the safety of the transportation system and work zones, Brunner said his interest in making improvements was piqued as he pored through crash reports and visited the scenes. He learned of the toll crashes, especially where road work is occurring, takes on the workers. 

Members of the panel shared some chilling statistics, including: 

• Overall, suicides in the U.S. increased to 49,300 in 2023, up from 48,183 since just 2021. In the construction industry, 5,000 workers died by suicide in 2022, which climbed to 7,000 by 2023. By contrast, the industry loses an estimated 1,000 annually to construction site incidents.
• In Michigan, a construction worker is now 12 times more likely to die by suicide rather than due to an on-the-job injury.
• There is a 75 percent remission rate for mental health and even substance abuse issues if one stays engaged six months to a year in a treatment plan. 

Also discussed: The Michigan Senate recently adopted legislation to allow the use of safety cameras in work zones to monitor vehicle speeds and initiate citations for those exceeding work zone speed limits. On a previous episode of the podcast, Juan Pava, Safety Programs Unit chief of the Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering at the Illinois Department of Transportation, talked about the success of a similar program there. 

On this week’s 200th edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Bill Milliken Jr., vice chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority and son of the state’s longest-serving governor.

Milliken talks about the honor and responsibility of serving on the Authority, including his role as chairman of the finance committee as they look to future needs and ensure appropriate revenue streams will be there.

He also shares his history with the Annual Bridge Walk and recalls walking with his father when he was governor. Gov. Milliken still holds the record for the fastest crossing among governors participating in the walk: 46 minutes, 50 seconds in 1971.

The Milliken history with the Mackinac Straits crossing concept predates the bridge’s construction by more than a decade. His grandfather, James T. Milliken, while serving in the state Senate, discussed the need for a bridge with then-Gov. Chase Osborn in the 1940s.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a return visit by Brian Travis, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project manager on the I-96 Flex Route in western Oakland County, which is wrapping up soon. 

The innovative project, allowing for the use of shoulders as travel lanes during peak travel times, is MDOT’s second use of Flex Route concept. In 2016 and 2017, contractors built the first phase of a Flex Route, a $125 million investment on US-23 north of Ann Arbor. A project is underway for a second phase, at an estimated cost of $162 million, to extend the US-23 Flex Route from north of 8 Mile Road to I-96.  

Travis says the Oakland County project is on schedule and three lanes should be restored in each direction within a few days of this recording on Oct. 24, 2024. He also touts the safety and efficiency benefits the added capacity during peak travel hours will provide and explains that contractors came very close to the targeted cost of $270 million.  

Travis also explains why traffic will resume on three lanes soon, but the shoulders will not be available for use until early 2025. 

Funding for this project is made possible by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Rebuilding Michigan program to rebuild the state highways and bridges that are critical to the state's economy and carry the most traffic. The investment strategy is aimed at fixes that result in longer useful lives and improves the condition of the state's infrastructure. 

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Ryan Mitchell, marking the one-year anniversary of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Office of Major Projects.
 
 The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) categorizes major projects as those with a price tag of $500 million or more.
 
 Mitchell helped establish and refine the alternative delivery and critical project delivery programs of numerous U.S. transportation agencies, including the state transportation departments of Nevada, Texas, Alaska, and now Michigan. In our conversation, he explains the various types of alternative delivery of projects and the benefits.

Other links and references:

Innovative contracting at MDOT
www.Michigan.gov/MDOT/Business/Contractors/InnovativeContracting   

MDOT’s Modernize 75 project
www.Modernize75.com/ 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the extraordinary efforts that culminated with the opening of a new and improved bridge near Edenville.

Jack Hofweber, manager of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Mt. Pleasant Transportation Service Center, reflects on the heavy rains and floods that breached dams and ravaged roads and bridges in several counties in 2020, just weeks after many people went into lockdown because of the pandemic.

In what meteorologists concluded was a 500-year event, the flooding that resulted from up to 7 inches of rain in Midland, Saginaw and surrounding counties damaged homes and property, forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate and most spectacularly destroyed one power dam and severely damaged another.

One year after the floods, an MLive drone video captured the changes.

On Monday, Oct. 7, MDOT Director Bradley C. Wieferich, elected officials, contractors and labor groups celebrated the opening of the new bridge, as highlighted in this video.

With climate change and sustained high water creating headaches for shoreline communities across the state and officials from several state agencies planning for more, the challenge of planning and building more resilient transportation infrastructure, especially during an ongoing period of underinvestment, remains acute.

Other relevant links:

https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2020/05/how-a-spring-rainstorm-became-a-500-year-flood-event-in-mid-michigan.html 

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/governor-expands-state-emergency-declaration-include-arenac-gladwin-and-saginaw-counties 

This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast picks up on themes in a Detroit Free Press story detailing creative efforts by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to stem the proliferation of deer in the state’s southern regions.

Ed Golder, public information officer at MDNR, explains the challenges and how wildlife officials are tackling them. This includes some important changes in 2024 hunting regulations.

The problem, as outlined in the story:

While the state just recently started requiring hunters to report deer harvests, the results are stark: Hunters reported killing 30,000 fewer deer in 2023 than the year before, an 11 percent decrease, according to the state.

In a letter to hunters last year, Chad Stewart, MDNR’s deer, elk and moose management specialist, urged a greater antlerless harvest.

Podcast image courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a follow-up to the previous episode highlighting efforts to protect people and animals with creative wildlife crossings on roads.

Amanda Novak, a resource specialist in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Bay Region, helped spearhead the grant application and explains the importance.

As laid out in the project abstract for the grant, the number of wildlife vehicle collisions (WVCs) in Michigan continues to increase annually, worsening risks and costs to drivers. For example, white-tailed deer alone account for more than 55,000 WVCs and cost motorists an average of $130 million per year in Michigan. Additionally, WVCs are a major threat to many wildlife populations in the state, including documented impacts on several threatened and endangered species. Projected increases in tourism, housing development and climate change effects are likely to exacerbate WVC effects on motorists and wildlife in Michigan.

Podcast photo courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, the first installment of two focusing on ways to enhance the safety of animals, and human drivers, with wildlife crossings. In Part I this week, a conversation with Tim Johnson, a landscape connectivity specialist with the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative.

Going back some three decades, Canadian transportation and wildlife officials have collaborated on ways to build safe crossings to protect both animals and humans in Alberta. A system of 38 underpasses and six overpasses and fencing on 82 km of the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park are also part of the longest ongoing wildlife crossing research and monitoring program in the world.

Johnson explains how the crossings work, how different animals use them and, especially, why these are just as beneficial to humans as the animals.

The hope is that Michigan officials can learn from the success from western officials as state officials pursue a federal grant for crossings here. Michigan State Police say more than 58,000 deer-related crashes occurred in the state in 2022. That’s a 13 percent increase from 2021, a decade high. Repairs from those crashes could be just as high.

In Wyoming, a $24.3 million federal grant awarded in 2023 was the largest made from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s first tranche of $109 million for a novel Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. Wyoming will use the money to fund the bulk of the $37 million construction project that will involve fencing 30 miles of the highway, building six or so new underpasses and a wildlife bridge for skittish antelope that won’t go through a tunnel.

Podcast photo courtesy of Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Detroit News editor and columnist Chad Livengood about his reporting on misperceptions and contradictions surrounding the development of electric vehicle battery production facilities.

As his Aug. 31 column observed:

All of this transition to electrification is backed by huge government subsidies — just like China does with its auto industry — so the Michigan-based domestic auto industry doesn't move more production to Mexico or offshore.

While EV adoption has not occurred at the pace expected by U.S. automakers, investments in plants to produce the batteries continues at the same time Michigan and other states make progress on supporting new charging infrastructure through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) process.

Other relevant links:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2024/04/28/why-america-remains-a-forbidden-land-for-chinese-carmakers/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/business/economy/china-electric-vehicles-biden-tariffs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ngrp=ctr&pvid=EA2E2D4F-A518-4BE7-A02D-690443CDEC23

This week’s edition of Talking Michigan Transportation is a reprise of a 2020 conversation with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about her Rebuilding Michigan plan. Now four years into the program, the Michigan Department of Transportation continues to improve many of the state’s busiest roads and bridges.

Key links: 

http://michigan.gov/RebuildingMI  

https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/State-of-the-State/2021 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Joann Muller, a Detroit-based reporter for Axios covering all things mobility, talks about electric vehicle (EV) sales, progress on developing charging networks, consumers buying smaller vehicles, and her experience with a new device that converts a conventional bicycle to an e-bike.

• According to a new report, sales of battery-powered models across America are up compared to the rest of the industry. The boost has been spurred on by price cuts, tax breaks and other incentives aimed at encouraging Americans to go electric.
• New technology allows for an e-bike conversion. From the story: With pedaling assistance from a simple friction drive system, it’s less complex and a lot cheaper than a fully electric bike.

Despite Michigan’s hands-free driving law being in place for more than a year now, police are still seeing drivers holding their phones or other devices in vehicles. The practice is especially troublesome where road work is going on.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations with a construction engineer facing the challenge of working with contractors to rebuild roads in a timely manner while maintaining mobility for the public. 

First, Tanya Pawlukiewicz, MDOT’s Grand Region construction engineer, talks about a number of crashes that have occurred in a work zone on a major project on I-96 in Ionia County. 

Later, Michigan State Police Sgt. Bradley Campbell talks about what he and his colleagues are seeing and hearing along the I-96 corridor and the effectiveness of Operation Ghost Rider.

One conclusion: Despite aggressive public awareness campaigns, expansive media coverage and other efforts, many people don’t know about the hands-free law. On a recent day, Campbell says four of nine drivers stopped for using their phones told troopers they were ignorant of the law. 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Troy Hagon. For 16 years, Troy has worked in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Office of Government Affairs, the past six as director.

Troy will be leaving MDOT soon to become the deputy director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Michigan (ACEC).

During the conversation, Troy reflects on his work in the Michigan Legislature prior to coming to MDOT. He also recalls some good memories of his work at the department and the need to continue efforts to find a long-term, sustainable solution to Michigan’s decades-long under-investment in transportation infrastructure.