Prioritizing road and bridge repairs
ESCANABA -- The Michigan Department of Transportation is looking to members of the community for input on prioritizing road projects for the next few fiscal years.
This year, MDOT is facing what it calls a "funding crisis".
If the Department of Transportation can't come up with about $84 million, it'll lose out on federal match funds that total about $450 million. Without that money, projects will be cut, and MDOT wants the public's opinion on which ones to focus on.
"We do this every year. We go out and meet the people, have the public come in and give us input on if we're building the right projects, if they're seeing roads that are in different shape than what we think they're in, if they're seeing congestion or roadway issues, safety issues that we may have missed. That's the kind of input we're looking at from them," said MDOT Regional Engineer, Randy Van Portfliet.
Wednesday's meeting in Escanaba was just one of 10 statewide. If you're interested in attending one of MDOT's open meetings, the next one is Thursday at Tulppo's restaurant in Bruce Crossing.