Repairs leave less funds for new roads

[Allan]

Maintaining roadways will continue to eat up the lion's share of transportation money in the state, says the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.

Special Report

Repairs leave less funds for new roads

Facing added traffic, Michigan won't get enough money to build more highways

By Tom Greenwood, and Jim Lynch / The Detroit News

The cost of maintaining Michigan highways after a 10-year, multibillion-dollar fix-up won't leave much money to build new roads, add lanes or ease congestion that parallels regional sprawl.

Highway officials say they'll have 90 percent of state roads in good shape by 2007. The state has spent more than $3 billion on that effort since 1997.

But maintaining roadways will continue to eat up the lion's share of transportation money. And that's a concern for Metro Detroit drivers, who each waste an average of 53 hours in gridlocked traffic annually, and for businesses that need to move goods quickly.