Flood Of Money Yields Scant Improvement In State Roads

Despite the billions of dollars that the Michigan Department ofTransportation has spent to repair its ragged road system, the state'shighways have scarcely improved since the current rebuilding programbeganin 1997, according to an exclusive analysis of state records by theMichigan Land Use Institute.As a result, reports the Institute's Kelly Thayer, Michigan's roadconditions continue to rank among the worst in the nation. TheInstitute'sstudy, based on MDOT's internal road repair data, found that the stateallowed some roads to decay prematurely while it poured money intopatching old ones that instead needed complete reconstruction.