Talking Michigan Transportation

This week on the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, following two important announcements from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer solidifying Michigan’s commitment to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, a conversation with two of the people helping to make the ideas a reality. First, Elsa Givan, an analyst at Silicon Foundry who is working with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Michigan’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, will talk about why this is a leapfrog moment for Michigan and the future of automated and electric vehicles. In a second segment, Michele Mueller, a senior project manager at MDOT, explains the Request for Proposals (RFP) process. On Tuesday, Sept. 21, while participating in the opening ceremony at Motor Bella, the governor announced an initiative to develop the nation's first wireless charging infrastructure on a public road in the U.S. The development of a wireless dynamic charging roadway in Michigan is a step toward addressing range anxiety and will accelerate the transition to all-electric transit fleets in Michigan and beyond. On Wednesday, Sept. 22, at the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Mackinac Policy Conference, the governor followed up with two related announcements:A “Lake Michigan EV Circuit,” a charging infrastructure network along Lake Michigan to support the region's tourism industry; andAn initiative to prepare Michigan's workforce for automotive mobility and electrification jobs and career pathways. Givan explains why these EV announcements represent a leapfrog moment for Michigan and what other states are doing in the charging realm. She likens the charging initiative to the Cavnue project, suggesting this project gives Michigan the ability to rapidly accelerate its electrification strategy by adopting a technology on the five to 10-year mass-adoption horizon.She also predicts that as automated EVs become the national standard, consumer expectations will shift toward complementary automated charging infrastructure, unlocking massive time and cost efficiencies for commercial freight, public transit, and private transportation. Underscoring the economic and work force development imperative, Givan says that in order to “own the future of mobility, Michigan must place bold bets on electrification innovation.” Projects like the Electric Avenue signal to the private sector that the state is the most conducive and supportive environment nationwide for EV companies to launch and scale their businesses, which in turn leads to new high-paying jobs in the mobility sector and economic growth.  Later, MDOT’s Mueller joins the podcast to explain her role in overseeing the RFP for the wireless charging roadway concept. She explains why Michigan offers a holistic and supportive environment for developing charging technology and the collaboration among several state agencies.  Mueller also touts MDOT’s other pioneering efforts in mobility like Mcity at the University of Michigan and the American Center for Mobility as effective examples of those partnerships. Because the RFP process encourages creativity and allows for developing innovative solutions, the expectation is for a number of companies to seize the opportunity to try out their concepts. Mueller further underscores Givan’s comments about the value of this process providing myriad opportunities for companies here in Michigan to utilize and test their technology in a live environment.Podcast photo: Elsa Givan. Photo courtesy of Silicon Foundry. 

Last week, after inspectors discovered severe damage to a bridge that carries rail cars over the US-23 freeway near Milan, Michigan, engineers made the difficult decision to close the road and pursue emergency repairs. The damage came to light upon a more in-depth inspection of the bridge that revealed severe structural damage from a high-load hit involving a truck traveling underneath in late August. As Pew Trust research underscored in 2019, “so-called bridge strikes occur all over the country when trucks or their loads are too tall to pass under highway bridges and overpasses. They damage valuable infrastructure, create epic traffic jams and can be hazardous for other drivers who may be pelted with fallen debris or forced to swerve into another car.” Matt Chynoweth, chief bridge engineer for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), joins the podcast to explain the sequence of events and why the busy freeway needed to be closed. He also talks about the bridge engineers’ efforts to move quickly on emergency repairs, acknowledging the inconvenience to commuters who rely on the freeway every day, as well as freight haulers traveling farther north or south on the freeway. The bridge is owned by the railroad and is important to the movement of freight. It is more than 80 years old, pre-dating the conversion of the original two-lane US-23 into a freeway. Chynoweth explains why the jurisdiction for railroad bridges is different than vehicle bridges that carry local roads over or under state-owned highways. As of the podcast recording on Thursday, Sept. 16, MDOT officials were waiting to open bids and award a contract for the emergency repairs necessary to make the bridge safe for vehicles to pass underneath.  Chynoweth also talks about the importance of truck drivers planning their routes and obtaining permits for oversize loads. In Michigan, a permit is required for objects and/or vehicles at 13 feet, 6 inches or higher. Michigan Bridge Height Poster

Coming off the successful return of a cool Michigan tradition, the Mackinac Bridge walk on Labor Day, this week’s podcast revisits the condition of our state’s other bridges and some creative proposals to fund replacement and repair of state and local structures.  First, for some national perspective, a conversation with experts in performance management and bridge conditions at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO): Patricia Bush, AASHTO’s program manager for bridges and design, and Matthew Hardy, AASHTO’s program director for planning and performance management. Later, Matt Chynoweth, chief bridge engineer at the Michigan Department of Transportation, talks about a pilot bridge bundling program for local agencies. An MDOT dashboard tracks the progress. Bush explains why terms for bridge conditions, like structurally deficient and functionally obsolete, were abandoned, with discussion now focusing simply on conditions being good, fair or poor. She also talks about the condition of the nation’s bridges, overall, and what goes into decisions to close a bridge. Bush cites the decision to close a Memphis bridge in May after inspectors found a crack in the steel structure.  Hardy explains how performance management informs decisions and why all states must use the national bridge reporting measures. He also lays out the reasons for following asset management principles in making decisions about a transportation network.  Offering a focus on Michigan bridge conditions, Chynoweth explains how a decision two decades ago to focus on asset management has helped conserve resources and address state-owned bridges more efficiently. He also talks about some major bridge projects MDOT engineers are tackling this summer, including a bridge over M-55 near Manistee, which MDOT Director Paul C. Ajegba visited this week.Podcast photo: MDOT Director Paul Ajegba talks to engineers at the M-55 bridge site near Manistee, Michigan.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk. After the pandemic forced cancelation last year for the first time since the inaugural walk to mark the bridge’s dedication in 1958, walkers and runners will once again descend on St. Ignace and Mackinaw City on Monday, Sept. 6. James Lake, MDOT’s North Region media relations representative who also helps with communications for the Mackinac Bridge, joins the podcast to talk about what to expect this year. He underscores two important points: —   The bridge will once again be closed from 6:30 a.m. to noon to avoid conflicts between public vehicles and runners and walkers on the bridge; and—   The walk will once again commence on each end of the bridge with most walkers going halfway and turning around so they can end in whichever community they parked a vehicle. This video explains the format. Despite the changes in the format implemented to ensure the safety and security of walkers, some 30,000 people participated in 2019.Podcast photo: A blue police car stands watch as thousands of people enjoy walking the Mackinac Bridge in  2019.

This week on the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, an update on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Rebuilding Michigan program as the deal closes on another $800 million in bonds.The bonds closed today will cover the cost of rebuilding some of Michigan's most highly traveled freeways. When all of the $3.5 billion bonds are sold over the next few years, they will finance or help accelerate rebuilding or major improvements of 122 major highways across the state.  View the status of road and bridge projects here.In a unanimous vote in January 2020, the Michigan State Transportation Commission (STC) authorized the department to issue and sell $3.5 billion in bonds backed by state trunkline revenues. Gov. Whitmer spoke on the podcast at the time about her Rebuilding Michigan plan, rolled out in her 2020 State of the State address and the STC vote.  First up this week, Patrick McCarthy, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation's (MDOT) Bureau of Finance, talks about the latest closing and another favorable market reaction.  Later, Suzanne Shank, president and the largest equity owner of Shank Williams Cisneros & Co., and CEO of Siebert Williams Shank & Co., talks about her firm's role in underwriting the deal. Her firm is the top-ranked minority and woman-owned underwriter of municipal bonds in the country. McCarthy says the low interest rates are very similar to those for the first closing in 2020, with total proceeds of just more than $1 billion from the $800 million in bonds. The all-in true interest costs are 2.35 percent. The maximum annual debt service maintains 5.9 times coverage against revenues, well above the four times coverage required by STC policy.   ​In addition to the Rebuilding Michigan bonds issued, MDOT took advantage of favorable market conditions and refunded $68.2 million of trunkline bonds. This refunding will yield net present value savings of $19.3 million, which will be directed back into the trunkline road and bridge program.   During her segment, Shank talks about her firm's role in finding buyers for the bonds and completing the transactions. She also offers some context about who buys the bonds and explains the bonds are garnering a premium on the market because of the solid credit rating and high demand.

The U.S. Senate this week adopted a sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill that includes $550 billion in new revenue for roads, water systems, electric vehicle charging, broadband, rail, and transit. Lloyd Brown, the former chief spokesperson for the American Association of State Transportation Officials (AASHTO), now with HDR, Inc.,  joins the conversation to share national perspective.  Later, Niles Annelin, policy section manager at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), breaks down what will be Michigan’s share of the funds, provided the bill clears the House.  Industry groups from the Blue-Green alliance to myriad contractors associations to AASHTO issued supportive statements for the bill.  Brown cites the certainty contractors will gain from a five-year commitment of additional federal funding.  But he also addresses the lack of a user-fee model in the pay-for components and some questions from organizations long advocating for putting the cost on users, pointing to continuing research for a mileage-based user fee national pilot project.  Annelin joins later to talk about the breakdown of new funding for transportation programs in Michigan. The White House issued a fact sheet outlining those investments.  Michigan would see about a 30 percent increase in federal aid to roads over the five-year period.  Annelin also talks about the funds for electric vehicle charging opportunities for more equity in deploying the technology. Podcast image by MotionStudios from Pixabay. 

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Michigan’s chief mobility officer, Trevor Pawl, about a major announcement Thursday to help with one transportation challenge we all experience: finding a parking space. Speaking at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars Thursday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered details on a smart-parking lab initiative, a collaboration with Ford, Bedrock, the American Center for Mobility, and Bosch to test advanced technologies in parking, logistics and electrical vehicle charging. In 2018, research compiled by Senseable City Lab at MIT and Allianz quantified what parking needs would be in an era of automated vehicles.Today’s news builds on a recent announcement of Michigan Strategic Fund support for Ford’s new global battery center of excellence, securing its location in Romulus and helping to drive momentum as the state continues to emerge as an electric vehicle R&D and manufacturing leader.   Ford is also transforming the historic Michigan Central Station and several adjacent properties in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood into an innovation district and open platform to redefine the future of transportation and pave the way for the connected, autonomous and electrified world ahead.Also discussed: President Biden on Thursday unveiled a plan to make U.S. cars and light trucks more fuel efficient and to begin a shift to electric vehicles over the coming decade.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about the past, present and future of MDOT’s Transportation Diversity Recruitment Program (TDRP).  The 10-week program allows students to work alongside other on-the-job training program participants, internal staff and external professionals who provide engineering, technical, inspection, and project management services for state road and bridge projects.         First, Greg Johnson, former MDOT chief operations officer and current member of the Michigan State Transportation Commission, talks about how the program was conceived eight years ago in collaboration with now-MDOT Director Paul C. Ajegba, who saw a need to form partnerships with higher education institutions and increase minority representation in transportation.  The idea is to work with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to recruit and introduce underrepresented groups of students to transportation-specific career opportunities.  Johnson also discusses his work now overseeing a project with the Oregon and Washington State DOTs to replace the bridge over the Columbia River.  Later, James Jackson, strategy director for MDOT’s TDRP, talks about the satisfaction he gains from working with students and the nearly 60 who participated this year. The department released a video July 27 featuring some of the students and highlighting the success of the program.  Finally, we hear from TuKiya Cunningham, a student at Alabama A&M University, about her experience in this year’s TDRP program. The student interns get a wide variety of opportunities and she counts among her highlights working with engineers on the I-75 Modernization project, which includes an innovative drainage tunnel. Podcast photo: James Jackson and Tukiya Cunningham at MDOT's TDRP Intern Showcase.

On this edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Brad Sharlow, point person on MDOT’s state long-range transportation plan, talks about the extensive engagement and public involvement involved in the process.Michigan Mobility 2045, or MM2045, is the department’s ambitious project to look into a big crystal ball and see what our needs will be and how mobility will factor into how we live, work and play. Some ways MM2045 helps Michigan residents:-        Demonstrates how to get there so that the public can understand decision-making and hold transportation agencies accountable to their commitments.-        Explores how additional revenue will grow Michigan’s economy, advance equity, adapt to climate change, and improve health and quality of life today and into the future.Sharlow explains that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, this transportation plan included an expansive outreach and public involvement process utilizing a variety of new methods. He also says MM2045 is the first state long-range transportation plan in the country to fully integrate state freight and rail plans into a combined long-range transportation plan. In addition, MM2045 incorporates Michigan’s first active transportation plan and statewide transit strategy.As noted with recent heavy rains and flooding in Metro Detroit, Sharlow also talks about the plan’s discussion of the need to prepare the system to be more resilient, redundant, and technology-ready.Among other findings, the pandemic has accelerated ongoing trends toward urbanization, more-flexible travel patterns, e-commerce, and changes in the supply chain. While Michigan’s vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels, passenger travel and freight patterns may look quite different than they did pre-pandemic.Also noted: Michigan’s aging population. By 2045, Michigan’s age 65-and-older population is expected to increase significantly, accounting for the bulk of the state’s 7 percent projected growth. To age in place independently, older Michiganders will need access to on-demand paratransit service, rides to medical appointments, walkable communities, and other alternatives to driving. In part due to aging but also in part to generational preferences and urbanization, the number of households without a vehicle is projected to bump up from 7.9 percent to 9.1 percent in 2045, with increases across all regions of the state.

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation, a conversation with Adam Wayne, a construction engineer in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Metro Region, who is helping coordinate repairs to I-75 in the wake of a massive tanker crash and fire July 12. The tanker, carrying 13,000 gallons of fuel, crashed into a barrier wall on I-75 in Troy, igniting a fire that closed both sides of the freeway, scorching the highway and median.  Wayne explains the process for evaluating the damage to pavement after an incident of this magnitude and why most freeway lanes will be closed for several days. He also talks about how fire and extreme heat cause the water in concrete to turn to steam, causing extensive damage in a short amount of time, as illustrated in this 2019 Popular Mechanics story and video. As the surface takes on a soft, chalky consistency, it turns to dust. The crash occurred on a segment of I-75 that was essentially brand new pavement, part of a major modernization of the freeway across Oakland County. As police continue the investigation into the cause of the crash, there is a process for recovery from insurance companies for any crash that involves damage to state-owned infrastructure. The protocol calls for MDOT to compile expenses from incident response, cleanup and eventual repair. These expenses are from MDOT and any local or other state agencies that participate.  A bill signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2019 amended the Insurance Code to allow access to the full amount of insurance coverage, up to $5 million, for damages to property by vehicles subject to federal insurance requirements. The bill allows the state to recover more money in damages if a motorist is found at fault for infrastructure damages.