MICHIGAN, USA — Michigan has more poor-rated roads in 2022 than in the previous year, according to a new report from the Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC).
Michigan's 2022 Roads & Bridges Annual Report shows that despite an upward trend in road conditions over the last few years, 2022 saw a slight increase in poor-rated roads and a slight decrease in good-rated roads.
Roads with a fair rating also dropped slightly year over year from 2021 to 2022.
Michigan's roads are divided into two categories for the purpose of the annual report, federal-aid roads and non-federal-aid roads.
Federal-aid roads consist of about a third of Michigan's roads but see about 95% of the traffic load each year.
The remainder of Michigan's roads are classified as non-federal-aid roads or local roads and they constitute over 165,000 lane miles of road in the state.
2022 Federal-Aid Road Condition
Road conditions have been steadily improving over the last several years in Michigan, but there was a slight setback in 2022 with the deterioration of roads outpacing improvements.
Despite this small setback, TAMC still believes that the state is showing ongoing improvement in its infrastructure, but also believes that more funding is needed to continue to improve road conditions.
"This trend is not expected to continue as paved federal-aid roads are expected to deteriorate, outpacing the potential funding available to maintain the network," the report concluded about the future of road conditions in the state.
View the state of federal-aid roads for 2022 below.
2022 Federal-Aid Pavement Condition
- 25% - Good Condition
- 42% - Fair Condition
- 33% - Poor Condition
2022 Non-Federal-Aid Road Condition
The non-federal-aid roads in Michigan make up the majority of the roads in the state, but these roads see very little traffic compared to the others.
Local municipalities are in charge of surveying and rating the road conditions, but only a portion of the 165,000 lane miles of road are rated each year. In 2022, only 26,090 lane miles of road were rated with the remaining road ratings coming from surveys from previous years.
The 2022 report shows no change from the previous year's ratings.
View the state of non-federal-aid roads for 2022 below.
2022 Non-Federal-Aid Road Condition
- 20% - Good Condition
- 45% - Fair Condition
- 35% - Poor Condition
2022 Statewide Bridge Condition
Bridge conditions in the state are continuing to deteriorate at a faster rate than their condition is improving.
The annual report states that 1,274 bridges in the state "need major rehabilitation or are candidates for replacement."
Bridges are split into two categories, ones serviced by the Michigan Department of Transportation and ones serviced by local road agencies. Unlike roads in Michigan, all bridges are eligible for federal aid dollars.
Between 2021 and 2022, MDOT bridge conditions stayed about the same, with only a slight decrease in good-condition bridges and a slight increase in poor and fair-condition bridges.
View the state of MDOT bridge conditions for 2022 below.
2022 MDOT Bridge Conditions
- 23.8% - Good Condition
- 69.3% - Fair Condition
- 6.3% - Poor Condition
- 0.7% - Severe Condition
Bridges serviced by local road agencies also didn't change much year over year from 2021. The report only showed a slight decrease in good and severe condition bridges, and a slight increase in fair and poor condition bridges.
View the state of local road agency bridge conditions for 2022 below.
2022 Local Road Agency Bridge Condition
- 41.2% - Good Condition
- 44.5% - Fair Condition
- 8.6% - Poor Condition
- 5.7% - Severe Condition
2023 Report Card For Michigan's Infrastructure
The Michigan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers released their 2023 Report Card for Michigan's Infrastructure shortly after the report was released by TAMC.
The report card gives letter grades to various aspects of Michigan's infrastructure, including its bridges and roads.
The report gave roads a "D" and bridges a "D+" in Michigan, along with rating several other aspects of the state's infrastructure as well.
Despite the poor grades, the Michigan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers thinks that we are seeing improvement and that improvement can continue into the future.
"What would really help is some long-term stable funding sources that the MDOT and municipalities can really depend on for their long-term planning and repair of their systems," said Brad Ewart, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Michigan Section.
"Because over time, roads, the existing roads that are good in good condition today will deteriorate, as everything always does over time. And so having those long term, that long term funding source for the asset management planning will definitely help with the grade of roads and bridges," Ewart added.
Ewart remained optimistic about the progress so far, saying that he thinks that Michiganders will see improvements over the next couple of years
View the grades given by the American Society of Civil Engineers for Michigan's infrastructure below:
- Aviation: A
- Bridges: D+
- Dams: C-
- Drinking Water: D+
- Energy: D
- Inland Waterways: C
- Public Parks: C
- Rail: C
- Roads: D
- Schools: C-
- Solid Waste: C+
- Stormwater: D
- Transit: C-
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