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Road Commission says county will spend more than $9 million on roads and bridges this year
Summary
Montcalm County Road Commission reported townships will use a $100,000 matching program to accelerate preventative maintenance; commissioners were told about more than $9 million in county roadwork including a $2.2 million bridge project.
Rob Putnam, managing director of the Montcalm County Road Commission, told the county board on March 24 that township participation in a $100,000 match program will support a substantial increase in county roadwork this year.
Putnam said all 20 townships planned to use the match, and about half expect to exceed the match with additional local funds. He reported plans for roughly 43 miles of chip seal (about 40 miles more than the previous year), 5.5 miles of crush-and-shape on local roads, 10.5 miles of overlays on local systems, 18 miles of primary overlays and about 18.5 miles of natural-gravel work on township roads. He also said MDOT projects include a chip-seal project on M-57 and a single-lane reconstruction along US-131 near Pearson.
Putnam estimated the total for county roadwork at approximately $7,000,000 and added a $2,200,000 bridge project in Richland Township on Tamarack Road, putting the total at more than $9,000,000 for the county this year. He said the match money purposely excluded brush spraying, ditching, chloride, and other non-preventive maintenance so the funds would be used for preventative maintenance and construction.
Commissioners asked about the transition to Putnam as managing director and the Road Commission’s willingness to coordinate similar programs with villages and cities; Putnam said communication with townships had been strong and that staff had started earlier with engineers to lay out the program. He confirmed the Road Commission would be willing to work with villages, citing Lyman Road with Edmore and interest from Howard City.
Putnam also described MDOT projects in the county and warned that US-131 work near Pearson will be restricted to single-lane traffic at times. He said a proposed $3.1 billion package in the state legislature that would shift motor-fuel-tax distributions toward local governments could add materially to county funding if enacted, but that measure would still need to pass the Senate.
Putnam’s remarks give residents a timeline and a sense of scale for work this summer; commissioners thanked the Road Commission for the program and asked staff to continue outreach to townships and municipalities.
