Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel made an amendment to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s well-known mantra: “fix the damn roads.”

“It’s not about fixing the damn roads, it’s about fixing the damn funding,” Hackel said Thursday at the Macomb County Highway Department’s road conditions event that is held at its headquarters on Groesbeck Highway in Mount Clemens.

The list of projects planned for 2025 includes more than $83 million for road, bridge and traffic improvements.

More than $2.5 billion would be needed to improve every road and bridge in the county that needs repair, officials proposed.

MCDR uses funding from the Michigan Transportation Fund through Public Law 51, the Highway Trust Fund, the Federal Highway Administration, MCDR fund balance, cost-sharing agreements with local government agencies and the Department of Transportation of Michigan.

Deputy Macomb County Executive John Paul Rae said MCDR and county officials are working with state lawmakers to consider ways to update road funding mechanisms.

“Without a doubt, whenever we start this conversation, it always starts with the outdated Public Law 51, but we have expanded these conversations to highlight other alternative funding options,” Rae said.

The county has been successful in securing federal and state funding for numerous initiatives, including the three-year Innovate Mound project which led to a major reconstruction of Mound Road from Interstate 696 to Hall Road. Currently, the county is working to secure similar funding for phase two of the project between Eight Mile Road and Interstate 696.

“Through data-driven management, we know how many infrastructure assets we have in Macomb County, what condition they are in and how much funding we need to repair them,” Hackel said. “We will continue to make strategic investments while advocating and requesting additional state and federal resources to meet the funding needed to repair our roads and bridges. »

Among the 34 projects planned for 2024 are: reconstruction of 10 Mile Road in Center Line between Sherwood and Lorraine avenues and in Warren between Ryan Road and Sherwood Avenue; reconstruction of Garfield Road in Fraser, between 14 and 15 Mile Roads; and the reconstruction and widening of Romeo Plank Road between 21 ½ and 23 Mile Roads in Macomb Township.

These projects alone represent an investment of $40.5 million.

MCDR Director Bryan Santo said there are always more roads and bridges to repair than can be planned or funded in a single season, but his department uses a systematic approach to determining which roads require the most immediate attention.

“We communicate and coordinate with all of our communities and with our maintenance staff who travel the roads daily and let us know which roads are detrimental and in dire need of repair,” Santo said. “It’s a job security issue here because we’ve been underfunded for Michigan’s roads for decades, so there are a lot of roads that need to be repaired and resurfaced.

“It’s about coordination with communities and their wants and needs balanced with the availability of funding.”

Also on the agenda for 2025 are the repair of 10 bridges across the county on structures currently rated in poor or critical condition. Some bridges will be completely rebuilt while others will require rehabilitation and preventive maintenance.

Currently, 89% of Macomb County’s bridges are in fair to good condition; 6% are in poor condition and 11% are in critical condition. Five of the bridges in critical condition and five of the spans in poor condition will be repaired over the next two years.

“If we can fix Mound Road to the extent that we have, there is no doubt that we can fix every road project that we have here in Macomb County because we have the team and the talent to do it,” Hackel said. “There is no road problem that we are not aware of, but fixing the funding is how we can fix the roads. »

Updates on various road projects can be found at macombgov.org/roads.