Talking Michigan Transportation

Latest Episodes:

Reflections from a retiring DOT environmental policy leader Dec 19, 2024

Show notes

On this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Margaret Barondess, a manager in the Michigan Department of Transportation's (MDOT) environmental section who is retiring from state government, reflects on her career.
More than 50 years ago, Congress adopted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Barondess, who worked for MDOT for 33 years, explains how the act informs planning for transportation projects in Michigan and department efforts to at once protect our air, waterways, wildlife, and plants and minimize inconvenience to travelers.
While critics of NEPA have argued for scaling back the need for environmental impact statements, supporters tout NEPA's role in saving money, time, lives, historical sites, endangered species and public lands while encouraging compromise and cultivating better projects with more public support.
Barondess also talks about the challenges and rewards she and her team have experienced in recent years, including the success protecting some threatened species on a segment of I-75 in Monroe County with a corridor conservation action plan.

As the snow flies, why is driving to the conditions so difficult? Dec 05, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s episode of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Brad Wieferich, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, talks about his background overseeing development and design of road projects and the challenge of balancing mobility and safety.
With strong winds churning up lake-effect snow on Michigan’s western lakeshore, police agencies have reported dozens of crashes. Despite ongoing messages from law enforcement and safety advocates, drivers often fail to drive to the conditions.
Wieferich talks about what officials learned from a study conducted after a 193-vehicle pileup on I-94 near Galesburg resulted in the Michigan State Police issuing 58 citations.
Also discussed:

The Legislature, following about half of all states, approved bills allowing for the use of safety cameras in work zones. Wieferich explains the benefits.
Challenges in transportation going into 2025.

Reprise: Why is MDOT naming snowplows? Thank the Scots Nov 27, 2024

Show notes

As lower Michigan braces for the first significant snowfall of the seasons, we’re reprising a Talking Michigan Transportation episode from when the department launched a program to name snow plows.
This episode features a conversation with Iain McDonald of Transport Scotland, about their program to name the plows, or “gritters” as they call them.
Later, MDOT’s Nick Schirripa joined the conversation to talk about some of the creative names people submitted for plows here.

Report: Seat belt use slides slightly in Michigan but fewer drivers using hand-held devices Nov 21, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Timothy Gates, associate chair for undergraduate studies of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan State University, talks about a new report on the use of seat belts and hand-held devices by Michigan drivers.
The report shows 92 percent of front-seat occupants in Michigan wear seat belts, down from 92.4 percent in 2023 and 92.9 percent in 2022.
Gates talks about the demographic breakdown within those numbers, which show younger male drivers are less likely to wear seat belts. He also discusses the different kinds of drivers who populate the roads in the wake of the pandemic, as remote work remains the norm for more white-collar workers.
Also discussed: speeding continues to be a problem post-pandemic, Gates says.

Why the road building industry is focusing on mental health Nov 14, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about mental health challenges for people who build and maintain roads and bridges.

Gregg Brunner, chief engineer and chief operations officer at the Michigan Department of Transportation, spoke about the issue last month on a panel convened by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

As someone who has spent a career focusing on the safety of the transportation system and work zones, Brunner said his interest in making improvements was piqued as he pored through crash reports and visited the scenes. He learned of the toll crashes, especially where road work is occurring, takes on the workers.

Members of the panel shared some chilling statistics, including:

Overall, suicides in the U.S. increased to 49,300 in 2023, up from 48,183 since just 2021. In the construction industry, 5,000 workers died by suicide in 2022, which climbed to 7,000 by 2023. By contrast, the industry loses an estimated 1,000 annually to construction site incidents.
In Michigan, a construction worker is now 12 times more likely to die by suicide rather than due to an on-the-job injury.
There is a 75 percent remission rate for mental health and even substance abuse issues if one stays engaged six months to a year in a treatment plan.

Also discussed: The Michigan Senate recently adopted legislation to allow the use of safety cameras in work zones to monitor vehicle speeds and initiate citations for those exceeding work zone speed limits. On a previous episode of the podcast, Juan Pava, Safety Programs Unit chief of the Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering at the Illinois Department of Transportation, talked about the success of a similar program there.

Mackinac Bridge Authority Vice Chairman Bill Milliken Jr. shares memories Nov 01, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s 200th edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Bill Milliken Jr., vice chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority and son of the state’s longest-serving governor.

Milliken talks about the honor and responsibility of serving on the Authority, including his role as chairman of the finance committee as they look to future needs and ensure appropriate revenue streams will be there.

He also shares his history with the Annual Bridge Walk and recalls walking with his father when he was governor. Gov. Milliken still holds the record for the fastest crossing among governors participating in the walk: 46 minutes, 50 seconds in 1971.

The Milliken history with the Mackinac Straits crossing concept predates the bridge’s construction by more than a decade. His grandfather, James T. Milliken, while serving in the state Senate, discussed the need for a bridge with then-Gov. Chase Osborn in the 1940s.

Three-year I-96 Flex Route project draws to a close Oct 25, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a return visit by Brian Travis, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project manager on the I-96 Flex Route in western Oakland County, which is wrapping up soon.

The innovative project, allowing for the use of shoulders as travel lanes during peak travel times, is MDOT’s second use of Flex Route concept. In 2016 and 2017, contractors built the first phase of a Flex Route, a $125 million investment on US-23 north of Ann Arbor. A project is underway for a second phase, at an estimated cost of $162 million, to extend the US-23 Flex Route from north of 8 Mile Road to I-96.

Travis says the Oakland County project is on schedule and three lanes should be restored in each direction within a few days of this recording on Oct. 24, 2024. He also touts the safety and efficiency benefits the added capacity during peak travel hours will provide and explains that contractors came very close to the targeted cost of $270 million.

Travis also explains why traffic will resume on three lanes soon, but the shoulders will not be available for use until early 2025.

Funding for this project is made possible by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Rebuilding Michigan program to rebuild the state highways and bridges that are critical to the state's economy and carry the most traffic. The investment strategy is aimed at fixes that result in longer useful lives and improves the condition of the state's infrastructure.

How MDOT’s major projects office gets things done Oct 18, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Ryan Mitchell, marking the one-year anniversary of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Office of Major Projects.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) categorizes major projects as those with a price tag of $500 million or more.
Mitchell helped establish and refine the alternative delivery and critical project delivery programs of numerous U.S. transportation agencies, including the state transportation departments of Nevada, Texas, Alaska, and now Michigan. In our conversation, he explains the various types of alternative delivery of projects and the benefits.
Other links and references:
Innovative contracting at MDOT
www.Michigan.gov/MDOT/Business/Contractors/InnovativeContracting
MDOT’s Modernize 75 project
www.Modernize75.com/

Herculean effort results in a new bridge after historic mid-Michigan flooding Oct 09, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the extraordinary efforts that culminated with the opening of a new and improved bridge near Edenville.

Jack Hofweber, manager of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Mt. Pleasant Transportation Service Center, reflects on the heavy rains and floods that breached dams and ravaged roads and bridges in several counties in 2020, just weeks after many people went into lockdown because of the pandemic.

In what meteorologists concluded was a 500-year event, the flooding that resulted from up to 7 inches of rain in Midland, Saginaw and surrounding counties damaged homes and property, forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate and most spectacularly destroyed one power dam and severely damaged another.

One year after the floods, an MLive drone video captured the changes.

On Monday, Oct. 7, MDOT Director Bradley C. Wieferich, elected officials, contractors and labor groups celebrated the opening of the new bridge, as highlighted in this video.

With climate change and sustained high water creating headaches for shoreline communities across the state and officials from several state agencies planning for more, the challenge of planning and building more resilient transportation infrastructure, especially during an ongoing period of underinvestment, remains acute.

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