County road officials tell House committee local system faces funding, permitting and bridge pressures

Denise Donahue, CEO of the County Road Association of Michigan (CRA), and Ed Noyola told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that county road agencies operate most of Michigan’s road network and face growing costs for bridges, culverts and routine maintenance.

“First of all, we have 90,000 … centerline miles of road. That's 75% of the overall miles within the state of Michigan,” Ed Noyola said, putting the scale of county responsibility up front. He and Donahue said counties are responsible for a majority of local bridges as well — “a little over 5,800 bridges,” roughly 52% of the state total, according to their presentation.

The CRA told lawmakers why those counts and costs are rising: federal and state environmental permitting now require many culverts to be upsized. Noyola said that once certain dimensions are exceeded a culvert becomes classified as a bridge, which requires a different design, permitting and budget. “So if… the regs require us to upgrade or up a size, that's gonna require a bridge now rather than a culvert. That's gotten to be a real big problem for us, and it's a little hidden secret,” Noyola said.

The association outlined…