83 COUNTY ROAD AGENCIES MANY ROLES MICHIGAN COUNTY ROAD AGENCIES: WHAT WE DO... IMPORTANT ROLES: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EMERGENCY RESPONSE TOURISM PARTNER CORE VALUES: INNOVATION EFFICIENCY COLLABORATION Michigan’s many community routes are largely maintained by 83 county road agencies. Michigan’s 83 county road agencies are key contributors to quality of life in the 21st century. County road agencies are responsible for Across Michigan’s 83 counties, county road 75 percent of Michigan’s road system. They agencies employ thousands of hard-working also maintain highways and roads under men and women to plow, patch, paint, salt, contract for the Michigan Department of brine, clean, mow, map, finance, grade, Transportation in 64 counties. preserve, resurface and reconstruct 90,000 miles of roads and 31 billion square feet of Michigan has the nation’s 4th-largest local public right-of-way. road network, stretching from Luna Pier to the Soo to Ironwood and about 533 other We have large trucks, busy plows, long hours cities and villages. As a “Water Wonderland,” and big hearts for our communities. Michigan also has 5,700 local bridges that Being responsible for most Michigan roads is require constant attention. a big job, and we’ve been performing it on a very modest budget for over 100 years.* * Legislatively-required PA 51 reports indicate that county road agencies spend approximately 8 percent of annual budgets on administrative overhead. 51 ONE ROAD COMMISSION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Jim Iwanicki, PE, engineer-manager (left) of the Marquette County Road Commission (MCRC), and Matt Johnson, Eagle Mine external affairs director, inspect a section of M-112, which was built under the direction of MCRC to facilitate a major new mining facility. COUNTY ROAD AGENCIES ALLOW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Good roads create jobs. Not only road An important factor that can limit business building jobs, but jobs all across Michigan’s recruitment and economic development is an economy. Good jobs link Michigan’s under-resourced local road and bridge system. natural resources, agricultural products and Most county roads aren’t built for today’s factories with value-added opportunities commercial trucks and agricultural equipment, and global markets. which can reduce the state’s economic competitiveness. Half of Michigan local roads are unpaved, If the apples get bruised while being and most local and county roads are in fair to transported on a bumpy road, the ripple effect poor condition. spreads far beyond West Michigan.* *Anecdote cited in Governor’s 21st Century Economy Commission, as reported by chairman Sandy Baruah at the Mackinac Policy Conference – Detroit Chamber of Commerce, June 2017. 2 County Road Association of Michigan HERE’S HOW IT’S DONE. Public-private partnership (P3) in Marquette builds 33 miles and three bridges in 2.5 years allowing a nickel and copper mine to create 450 jobs in the UP. In 2002, mineral prospectors working “An all-season road would allay that In March 2013 the deal was near Big Bay in Marquette County concern for all 365 days a year, struck. discovered rich deposits of nickel and allowing the mine to fully load its Eagle Mine put $44 million for roads copper. Over the years, the Eagle trucks.” on the table, and the MCRC acted as Mine Company probed the resources “We would not have a business if we construction manager to get the job and made a decision to open a new had to abide by road restrictions done. MCRC was able to secure state underground mine– an economic several weeks each spring. In order funding to improve three other boon to the Upper Peninsula. to build and have successful mining bridges on the route. “Sometimes it’s lost on society, that operations, we had to be able to haul Three months later ground was mining is the beginning of everything. full loads year-round seven days a broken–and before Lake Superior It is the very beginning of the wealth week,” Johnson said. snow settled over the area in 2014, generation cycle,” said Matt Johnson, the mine was in operation. Eagle Mine Company’s external affairs To maintain safe driving conditions in manager based in Champion, winter, MCRC and Eagle Mine have a Michigan. 33.5 MILES second ongoing P3 that uses private Unfortunately, the only route to funds so the road commission can begin this particular cycle was a 3 BRIDGES plow, sand and maintain the road winding 66-mile route to the mill that around the clock. was partly a dirt two-track for 11 2.5 YEARS Today, the Eagle Mine has 450 miles and an unimproved paved road well-paid, skilled mining jobs, which for another 22 miles into the City of led to a $400 million renovation and Marquette. 450 JOBS more jobs at a 60-year-old brownfield “One of the challenges we faced site, the Humboldt Mill, a former was how to transport ore to the open pit iron ore mine and processing Humboldt mill,” Johnson said. “Our facility. trucks made 45 round-trips hauling Eagle Mine and Marquette County “Altogether, this project is creating a total of 2,000 tons of ore per day, Road Commission (MCRC) began to $1 billion of economic impact to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” work out a public-private partnership (P3) to upgrade two bridges, build Marquette County over the life of the “One of the concerns of Eagle Mine one new bridge, improve 22 miles of mine. The multiplier effect supports was the effect of seasonal weight paved road and pave 11 miles of dirt 2,000 additional jobs in the restrictions on the local road,” he said. road to a standard that would community,” Johnson said. support the mine’s trucking needs. “Without the road, these 450 jobs would not exist. The Marquette County Road Commission is truly a partner in the success of the Eagle Eagle Mine Mine,” Johnson concluded. 3 ONE ROAD COMMISSION EMERGENCY RESPONSE A 1,000-year rainstorm in northwestern Gogebic County in 2016 devastated the road and stranded families as torrential water rushed into Lake Superior. The Gogebic County Road Commission took emergency action to restore road access before winter. COUNTY ROAD AGENCIES ARE EMERGENCY “PRE-RESPONDERS.” Society depends on police, EMTs and Or cordoning off flooded roads until a firefighters, but when Mother Nature is raining determination is made whether the road or down fury these traditional first responders bridge is safe for first responders and other sometimes can’t get to the emergency until public travel. county road agency “pre-responders” clear the In July 2016, eight inches of rain fell in Gogebic roads first. County and washed out 30 bridges and That often means county road maintenance culverts, stranding 20 families living along Lake operators are called from snug beds in the wee Superior. The next summer up to seven inches hours of the morning, grabbing chainsaws from of rain closed 724 roads in Central Michigan, the road commission garage and braving a dark some for months. and stormy night to get trees off the road. Working in rain, sleet and snow, the county road Or clearing snow off a residential street for the agency team operates around the clock fulfilling third time in one day, so a very ill person can its legislative charter: To operate a safe and get to dialysis or a hospital. efficient local road system in any circumstance. 4 County Road Association of Michigan HERE’S HOW IT’S DONE. “We had roads so full of trees you three hours, causing extreme damage couldn’t walk on them,” said Jim to the roads in Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Johnson, PE, engineer for LCRC. “That Isabella and Midland counties. very night we opened up several roads At one point, the Isabella County beginning with M-22, the most-traveled Road Commission (ICRC) had 50 road.” The LCRC focused the vast different roads closed, half to flooding majority of its resources on re-opening and the other half completely washed the local roads in Leelanau County. It out, according to Tony Casali, ICRC took a month, with LCRC assisted by manager. None of them were safe for Michigan State Police (MSP) emergency public travel. Downstream, Midland management personnel and its County Road Commission reported contractors, as well as work crews 105 closed roads and $13 million in from the local prison. Thousands of trees blocked routes out of the infrastructure damage. Leelanau Peninsula after a 2015 wind storm. Because it was summer, many seasonal County road commission crews residents were in town to clear fallen worked around the clock to ensure trees. And most of them stacked wood Straight-line winds knocked the areas were properly signed and by the road and expected the road down thousands of trees, and blockaded, tested for stability and safe commission to take care of it, Johnson closed the Glen Arbor area before being re-opened to the public said. For six months LCRC hauled for three days. –some of whom were stranded in residents’ wood to county property their homes. On a sunny, lazy Sunday afternoon in next to a park, where it was chipped by August 2015, the up-north tranquility a MSP contractor. Weeks later, many roads were still was split by an unexpected straight-line closed as culverts had washed out and Altogether, the road commission wind shear of 80 to 100 miles per hour. entire sections of road buckled, caved hauled a couple thousand semi-loads of It cut a swath across the Leelanau in or shifted on an unstable soil base. wood debris. Peninsula, including Michigan’s iconic The area was declared a disaster zone Sleeping Bear Dunes, with damage seen Surprisingly, the falling trees caused by Michigan’s Lieutenant Governor as far east as Kalkaska.