With the seemingly never ending rising tide on the Great Lakes, those who are in charge of road maintenance across Michigan are forecasting a staggering cost for even just the most immediate fixes for roadways threatened by deepening waters.
Doug Mills, the Engineer-Manager of the Baraga County Road Commission in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula says that in some cases “rocks the size of a Volkswagen,” will be required to fix the eroding shoreline of Lake Superior.
With Great Lakes water levels the highest since the 1980s, the rising tide is not forecast to ease up anytime soon.
Just last month the County Road Association of Michigan reported that Michigan county roads with Great Lakes shoreline will require a staggering $53.4 million in immediate fixes.
In Baraga, Mills says, “These fixes are very expensive undertakings and there’s a lack of readily available sources for the material needed,” adding, “Placement of rocks and moving material and equipment down to the shoreline are only some of the challenges we face.”
As tourist season gets underway, eroding shoreline and damaged roads are becoming an even bigger problem. In Ontonagon County, high water levels are threatening the east entrance of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan’s largest state park.
Mike Maloney, Engineer-Manager of the Ontonagon County Road Commission, says, “To see such a well-traversed county road eroded like that is jarring,” and adds, “CR 107 has been an important road to generations of tourists as they visit the state park. It’s concerning how this is going to affect our community.”
Emergency funding is typically meant to address single-event storms, so it will not cover the costs of high water-related road repair. Special state or federal appropriations will be needed for the problem.
Sounding the alarm, Mills says, “We need help!” and adds, “Hopefully, the state legislators and our Congressional delegation can provide some funding to address this issue before it spirals out of control. The current problem is ongoing and is exacerbated by each storm event and the normal pounding of the shoreline by waves.”
The dilemma is also the cover story in the latest edition of Crossroads, the quarterly journal of the County Road Association of Michigan, which can be viewed digitally or downloaded at this link: https://micountyroads.org/newsroom/crossroads/
The 83 members of the County Road Association of Michigan represent the unified voice for a safe and efficient county transportation infrastructure system in Michigan, including appropriate stewardship of the public’s right-of-way in rural and urban Michigan. Collectively, Michigan’s county road agencies manage 75-percent of all roads in the state, including 90,000 miles of roads and 5,700 bridges. County road agencies also maintain the state’s highway system in 64 counties. Michigan has the nation’s fourth-largest local road system.
