Talking Michigan Transportation

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about how grants from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), will help the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) rebuild or shore up major roads and bridges over the next few years.First, Beckie Curtis, director of MDOT’s Bureau of Bridges and Structures, talks about the big news that MDOT received a $73 million federal grant to replace the 85-year-old Lafayette Avenue Bridge in Bay City. It is MDOT’s second-oldest movable bridge.Curtis also explains where the bridge fits with priorities and efforts to rebuild or replace other aging bridges on the state network.Later, Niles Annelin, policy section manager at MDOT, explains the broader grant process and the work involved in applying for and winning IIJA grants.These include a $105 million grant for the I-375 Reconnecting Communities project in Detroit, which involves replacing the depressed freeway with an at-grade urban boulevard, accommodating multi-modal users. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to announce the grant in September 2022.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the success of efforts by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to attract pollinators with roadside sunflowers and other vegetation. Amanda Novak, a resource specialist in MDOT’s Bay Region, talks about the origins and successes of MDOT’s pollinator program and how the experience of other state departments of transportation (DOT), including North Carolina, inspired the program. Novak talks about MDOT’s efforts planting sunflowers, dubbed pollinator superheroes, along state highways. From a 2015 issue of “The Scenic Route,” a publication of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas: The alarming loss of habitat over the past two decades has left untold millions of bees, butterflies, and other wild pollinators hungry and homeless. The small creatures on which we depend for a significant portion of our food supply have hardly been without their champions; public support for monarch butterflies alone has been estimated in the billions of dollars. Still, the pollinator prognosis remained dire. But over the past 18 months, support for pollinators has undergone a seismic shift, led by President Obama, who called for a national Pollinator Task Force in the spring of 2014. Less than a year later, in a book-length “Strategy to Protect the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators,” the federal government set ambitious goals that include the restoration or enhancement of 7 million acres of land for pollinator habitat over the next five years. Roadsides will comprise a significant portion of that acreage. Novak also talks about “Show Stopper” wildflowers to be planted at the Port Huron and Coldwater welcome centers. This is a trial year for us to see how the seed does. A second segment reprises a 2021 conversation with Margaret Barondess, manager of MDOT’s Environmental Section, explaining the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and how it informs Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and DOT decision making.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a look at transportation-related legislation being debated.Aarne Frobom, senior policy analyst at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and Troy Hagon, MDOT director of government affairs, break down the proposals.Among those discussed:House bills 4132 and 4133. These bills, resurrected after very nearly making it to the governor’s desk in 2022, would allow the use of cameras to enforce speed limit violations in state trunkline work zones. As discussed on a previous podcast, the cameras have had a positive impact in other states. Senate bill 43. This legislation, also debated and nearly adopted in the previous legislature, would:Require the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to use concrete barriers or equivalent crashworthy temporary traffic barriers when closing a freeway or a portion of freeway for construction, improvement, or repair.Specify that the requirement would not apply if the freeway or portion of freeway were closed for not more than three days for an emergency repair, utility crossing, maintenance, or other short-duration operation.Allow MDOT to exercise its engineering judgement in designing and placing concrete barriers or equivalent crashworthy temporary traffic barriers and associated traffic control devices for each closure of a freeway or portion of freeway. House bills 4352 and 4353 would allow for MDOT to restrict highway lanes to high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and allow road agencies to open a HOV lane to other classes of vehicles (trucks or automated vehicles). The legislation also allows enforcement of I-75 HOV lanes and Detroit and Grand Rapids bus lanes. 

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, some good news for innovative projects aimed at enhancing mobility.On March 21, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced winners of Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants.Michele Mueller, MDOT senior project manager for connected, automated, and electrification, joins the podcast to talk about a SMART grant award for $1.8 million to implement a proof of concept of a smart corridor for truck- borne goods traveling across the Blue Water Bridge, a vital international crossing between Port Huron, Mich., and Sarnia, Canada. Later, Janet Geissler, mobility innovation specialist at MDOT, explain the details of another SMART grant, a $1.3 million award to advance rural mobility. There are 82 public transit agencies in Michigan, 60 of which serve rural areas.These were among several projects receiving grants across the country.

With the introduction of a new bill in the Michigan Legislature to enable the use of automated technology to enforce speeding laws on segments of road under construction, this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast reprises an episode from Aug. 30, 2022, after a similar bill was introduced last legislative session.  House Bill 4132 has bipartisan sponsorship that has generated a great deal of discussion. The podcast now follows up on talks when the similar bill was discussed in the previous Legislature. Some key points from the previous podcast: In 2006, Illinois became the first state to authorize the use of automated traffic enforcement programs to enforce speed limits in highway work zones, with implementation coming a few years later. The enabling legislation provided a legal framework for photo enforcement of speed limits in highway work zones. In the summer of 2022, some Michigan lawmakers, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) officials, leaders in labor organizations, and the road building industry witnessed demonstrations on Michigan freeways on how the technology works.  The podcast first featured a conversation with Juan Pava, Safety Programs Unit chief, Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering at the Illinois Department of Transportation, about how the enforcement has worked there.  Later, Lance Binoniemi of the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA), talks about why he and his members are advocating for the previous House Bill 5750, and what he learned from the demonstrations. 

As Black History Month 2023 winds down, this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast highlights the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program and some of the success stories.First, Lisa Thompson, administrator of MDOT’s Office of Business Development, which includes the DBE program, explains why the federal government requires state DOTs to help give historically disadvantaged groups an equal footing in procuring transportation contracts.Thompson explains that the origins of the program and case for support dating back to the Reagan administration, including revisions over the years, as outlined by the U.S. Department of Transportation:This program has been the Department of Transportation's most important tool for promoting equal opportunity in federal transportation contracting since it was first signed into law by President Reagan in 1983. Effective March 4, 1999, the department issued a new final regulation to guide the administration of the DBE program. This new regulation has three major goals:To create a level playing field on which DBEs can compete fairly,To mend but not end the DBE program, andTo make the DBE program more effective and efficient for all participants.In a second segment, Rhonda Rowe, owner and chief executive officer of Rowe Trucking, LLC in Detroit, talks about how the program has helped her family business thrive for several decades. Her business is among those highlighted in a special MDOT initiative.

On part II of special Black History Month editions of the Talking Michigan Transportation, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist talks about the importance of the project to convert the I-375 depressed freeway to an at-grade boulevard, reconnecting neighborhoods. As a child growing up near those neighborhoods, and hearing the stories of relatives who recalled the razing of black-owned homes and businesses in the name of urban renewal, Gilchrist has personal reasons to be excited about the future, which he’s discussed previously.  In September, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Gilchrist, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and others to formally award the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) a nearly $105 million Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant to boost the project. Gilchrist also underscores the social and environmental justice components of the I-375 project and how the same principles apply to developing the intermodal facility and rethinking Michigan Avenue.Later, Gilchrist talks about a major economic development announcement this week that he participated in with Gov. Whitmer as Ford Motor Co. unveiled plans for a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan.

On special Black History Month editions of the Talking Michigan Transportation, conversations about the Michigan Department of Transportation’s project to transform the I-375 freeway into an at-grade urban boulevard, reconnecting neighborhoods to the east with downtown Detroit. In this episode, retired Detroit Free Press reporter and editor Bill McGraw talks about what he learned in his reporting about the history of the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods on the city’s east side. Black business owners and residents were displaced as city administrations dating back to the 1940s pursued an urban renewal plan that included eventual plans for a freeway through the neighborhood. McGraw explains how a once thriving Black business district on Hastings Street, with banks, hospitals, clothing stores, restaurants, and other service providers, was destroyed to make way for development that largely benefitted white developers and residents.  One Detroit Free Press story (paywall) describes in rich detail what was lost: "One of many notable establishments was Sunnie Wilson’s sprawling Forest Club, at Forest and Hastings. It featured a 107-foot bar, bowling alley, banquet hall and a two-story roller-skating rink. Beginners went upstairs." Later this week, another podcast episode will feature a conversation with Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who has strong family connections to the neighborhoods, and he talks about what the project means to him. We’ll also talk about a major economic development announcement this week that he participated in with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as Ford Motor Co. unveiled plans for a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Trevor Pawl, who recently moved on from his pioneering role as the state’s chief mobility officer, reflects on all the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) accomplished during his tenure and why he thinks more good things are ahead.Pawl talks about why it made sense of him and his family to move on now and what they have planned for the future.He also shares insights on hydrogen as a vehicle fuel, what the future holds and how the U.S. federal government is making moves to catch up with other nations and how Michigan is embracing a clean-energy future as discussed in this video with Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.Pawl also expounds on Michigan’s participation as one of seven Midwestern states teaming up to accelerate the development of hydrogen as a clean energy alternative. The partnership includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, whose economies are dominated by agriculture and heavy industry such as steel and automobile manufacturing.Among accomplishments from partners in including OFME, MDOT and other agencies, Pawl touts:Launching a first-state strategy for future mobility, the MI Future Mobility PlanBuilding America’s first road custom-built for driverless vehiclesBuilding America’s first road that charges an electric vehicle (EV) while it drivesLeading development of a signature EV route around Lake MichiganLed America’s first feasibility study for cross-border drone skywaysCreated the Midwest’s first airport innovation lab in Grand RapidsDeveloped a first-of-its kind partnership to attract 5,000 tech workers to the Michigan Central innovation district in DetroitCo-led the creation of Michigan’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) plan ($110 million for EV charging)Invested in the first autonomous, electric bus on a university campus

On this episode of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about how supplemental appropriations legislation will boost a long-sought rebuilding of a freeway interchange that is vital to the regional flow of commuters, commerce and quality of life. First, Michigan Department of Transportation Grand Region Engineer Erick Kind talks about how the interchange at I-96 and Fruit Ridge Avenue in Walker, northwest of Grand Rapids, has been outdated and in need of improvement for several years. As with all transportation infrastructure in Michigan, decades-long underinvestment has made the improvements cost-prohibitive, despite the growing manufacturing, agricultural, service industry, and community needs in the corridor.  The interchange is categorized as functionally obsolete and in need of replacement. Fruit Ridge Avenue has five lanes north and four lanes to the south of the bridge over I-96, but the bridge has only two lanes, which presents congestion and safety challenges. In the podcast’s second segment, State Rep. Carol Glanville, who helped secure the $25 million for the project, talks about her advocacy and success helping others understand why it’s a priority not just for the city of Walker but the broader region. She also explains how expanding the Fruit Ridge Avenue bridge will allow for nonmotorized lanes and connections between trails. From previous federal grant applications for the project:  The I-96/Fruit Ridge Avenue interchange improvement project will redesign and rebuild an important freight-handling interchange located in the city of Walker, Michigan, an agricultural and manufacturing hub of west Michigan. The project serves a substantially rural workforce, which swells the city's daytime population by more than 60 percent as they commute to and from Walker industries producing products for regional and international markets through Detroit, Chicago, the Muskegon Harbor Deepwater Port, and Canada. Other relevant links: Analysis of the supplemental appropriations legislationhttp://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2023-2024/billanalysis/House/pdf/2023-HLA-0007-96D50F76.pdf A December announcement of a nearly 200,000-square-foot industrial facility near the interchangehttps://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/12/whats-being-built-at-walker-intersection-its-big-and-its-industrial.html