All the federal stimulus money has been spent in the past two years and no more funding is appearing on the horizon.

---

Lots of Needed Road Projects, Little Money to Accomplish Them, Planner Says

County Ways and Means Committee to Review Memorandum of Understanding

December 30, 2010
By: Dave Rogers

David Engelhardt, Bay County Transportation Planner, will come to the Bay County Commission Tuesday with many ideas for road improvement.

The problem facing Mr. Engelhardt and county commissioners is there is little or no money to complete the projects.

"There's never enough money and the only solution would be a local millage or raising the gas tax, and I don't see either one happening," said Mr. Engelhardt.

All the federal stimulus money has been spent in the past two years and no more funding is appearing on the horizon, he added.

The county commission's ways and means committee is slated to review the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the county, Bay Metro Transit Authority and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

Among projects on Mr. Engelhardt's "wish list" (nomination for stimulus package) are:

Widen I-75 2,800 feet south of Squaconning Creek to the Bay-Saginaw line, estimated cost $20,539,000;

Restore and rehabilitate 8.95 miles of I-75 1/2 mile north of Linwood Road to Pinconning Road;

Install solar lighting at the roadside facility on I-75 northbound at Linwood Road;

Reconstruct Marquette Avenue from Indiana to Vermont, improving the horizontal alignment of the Marquette/Ohio Street curves and reconstructing as a concrete road in Bay City with cost estimated at $980,000;

Restore and rehabilitate Wilder Road from I-75 to the M-13 connector and M-13 (Euclid Avenue) to Patterson Road, cost estimated at $450,000;

Resurface Borton Avenue in Essexville from Caroline Street to Scheurmann Street, estimated at $300,000;

Restore and rehabilitate State Road from Wilder Road to 0.5 mile north of Wilder, estimated cost $370,000;

Restore and rehabilitate 1.23 miles of Truman Parkway/Woodside Avenue from the Saginaw River to Woodside Avenue to McEwan Street, estimated at $1.1 million;

Restore and rehabilitate .88 mile of North Union Road from Two Mile Road to Woodbridge Street, estimated to cost $380,000;

Restore and rehabilitate 0.73 mile of Bay-Arenac Drive from Monitor Road to Two Mile Road, estimated at $340,000.

In addition, Mr. Engelhardt lists $585,000 in transit operations equipment for Bay Metro Transit Authority on his local transportation project nominations. ### ###