By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
With spring and warmer temperatures here, the 2019 road construction season has already started and will soon be in full swing in Southwest Michigan. Work will include everything from road resurfacing and reconstruction to repairing and replacing bridges and other infrastructure.
A number of state and county projects are already underway in Berrien County and more are set to start in coming weeks and months. In addition, local villages and cities have their own slate of projects they plan to do this year.
Berrien County Road Department Director Jason Latham said last week that work has already started on sections of Red Bud Trail in the middle of the county and Napier Avenue in the Twin Cities area. Work on other roads will start in coming weeks and months and continue well into the fall.
Latham reported that the county’s goal is to get 75 percent of the county’s roads in fair or good shape in the next 10 years. “There’s not enough money to make every road good,” he said. “We’re trying to get to 75 percent being fair or good in 10 years. We’re not at 40 percent.:”
“One of the toughest things to explain is that it’s cheaper to fix roads that are in fair shape now and keep them that way than to fix the ones in bad shape,” he said. “When we do, we get more years of good pavement … Poor roads are a drain on the whole system, we only have so much money.”
Berrien County took over management of county roads from the Berrien County Road Commission in October 2017 and created the county road department. Latham began his duties as the director in February 2018.
He’s spent much of his time over the last year instituting a new approach to roads and spreading the word to local townships who provide local matches of money in some instances. His department unveiled a three-year transportation plan in March to cover transportation projects scheduled for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 years.
“We’re using an asset management approach and the protocols set by the state,” Latham said. “We analyze the roads every year. That helps us determine what’s the right fix and the best maintenance to do to get the best longevity. It also helps us to explain where the money is going.”
He said his goal is to be transparent so that townships know where the money is going each year and the reasoning behind why some projects are being done now and others later. “Before, every township thought others were getting more,” he said. “I want to be transparent in what we do.”
“I tell people that I don’t care about township lines, to me it’s about the network of roadways,” he said. “We don’t stop projects at township lines … South county residents think the north county gets more money, but the north county also has more traffic. Napier Avenue carries 15,000 cars a day which is more than some state and federal highways.”
He said the money the county gets from the state and federal governments will total over $20 million this year. Of that amount, over $7 million will pay for projects on primary roads in the county and another $5 million to $6 million going to pay for local road projects. The rest of the money will be spent on staffing and things like equipment and salt.
Latham said the county’s effort to improve area roads is helped by the fact that half of the county’s 22 townships have their own millages in place to pay for road repairs. The township road millages supplement the county’s efforts and pay for projects for many of the more minor roads.
“Unfortunately we’re not in a good spot as a state when it comes to roads,” he said. ‘We’ve underfunded roads for 15 years and contractors left the state. So we’re barebones and don’t have the resources to do it. We have so many miles to be repaired and only so much money to do it and only so many contractors.”
Chris Jacobs is the construction engineer at the Coloma field office of the Michigan Department of Transportation. He said several sections of state and federal highways and related infrastructure in Berrien County are seeing work done during this construction season.
“I’ve had a really large budget the last few years and a little more this year,” he said. “We have $61 million for work this year. I-94 definitely needs work badly and the U.S. 31 interchange will be completed next year. The next three to four years will be huge with big sections of I-94 being done.”
Sections of two interstate highways, I-94 and I-196, as well as connecting roadways are on the schedule for repairs. People traveling those two highways can expect to see construction delays in a number of areas, including I-94 from the state line northward as well as I-94 around the Twin Cities area exits.
MDOT’s 2019 Mi Drive Construction List for Berrien County lists a total of 17 projects. Other projects include ones on M-139 and M-63 in the St. Joseph and Benton Harbor areas and ones on M-51, U.S. 12 and U.S. 31 near Niles.
Jacobs reported that the Cleveland Avenue and Glenlord Road bridges over I-94 are being rehabilitated this year as will be the M-63 Bicentennial and Blossomland bridges. His office is also overseeing the work being done inside Warren Woods State Park which will be closed until mid to late May to redo the drives and parking lots.
SIDE BAR:
Getting from here to there might take a little longer in parts of Berrien County this year with construction road and lane closures, but people have a number of tools they can use as they plan their regular commutes and vacation travel this year.
Berrien County Road Department Director Jason Latham suggests that people visit the department’s website at www.bcroad.org as well as their Facebook page to check on current and upcoming projects.
The http://bcroad.org/1485/Current-Projects website lists the projects scheduled for the year including what’s going on now.
Chris Jacobs of the Michigan Department of Transportation recommends people check out the MDOT website to see what’s going on now and in coming months. That website is https://mdotjboss.state.mi.us/MiDrive/construction for the entire state.
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