MDOT outlines road-building process, funding, warranties and new roadway technology to House subcommittee

Greg Brenner, Michigan Department of Transportation chief operations officer and chief engineer, told the Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Local Transportation that MDOT oversees the planning, design, permitting, construction and closeout of major road projects across the state.

The presentation on MDOT’s road-building lifecycle covered agency organization, the Michigan Transportation Fund and Act 51 distributions, federal aid rules and procurement practices, permitting with the State Historic Preservation Office and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, financing and pavement-condition trends, warranties on construction, and pilots for intelligent-transportation systems and other innovations.

MDOT’s role, funding and scale

MDOT manages about 10,000 miles of state routes and roughly 4,800 bridges, Brenner said, while the state has about 122,000 miles of public roads and nearly 12,000 bridges in total. The Michigan Transportation Fund, MDOT’s primary state funding source, brings in roughly $3.8 billion per year, primarily from vehicle registration fees and fuel taxes; that amount is supplemented by federal aid.

By law (Act 51), MDOT receives a share of federal and state funding for state routes; Brenner said approximately 55 percent of the Michigan Transportation Fund is directed to local and county roads under current allocations and that the federal-aid split by statute assigns 75 percent to MDOT and 25 percent to local roads for federal-aid eligible routes.

Project lifecycle, procurement and consultants

Brenner said MDOT’s standard procurement method for construction contracts is…