Fast facts:
- MDOT is reviewing critical unfunded infrastructure needs across the state, including more than 100 state trunkline bridges at risk of closure by 2035 if policymakers don't act soon.
- Statewide, these bridge closures will have a daily impact on more than 1.8 million drivers and the roadways they serve.
- Without a comprehensive transportation funding package, MDOT estimates the capital highway program will support about 2,800 fewer construction jobs in 2026 than the current year.
GAYLORD, Mich. - As the 2025 construction season moves into its final stages, officials with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) are looking ahead to the end of service lives for critical roads and bridges. MDOT is highlighting this need in a video news release about the M-65 bridge over the Thunder Bay River south of Long Rapids, ahead of important discussions among policymakers, as the future of road and bridge funding hangs in the balance.
About two-thirds of MDOT's bridges have far exceeded their original design lives. MDOT now faces the possibility of more than 100 trunkline bridges closing to traffic by the year 2035, impacting approximately 1.8 million drivers daily if a comprehensive transportation funding package isn't secured. While maintaining quality roads is a priority for MDOT, bridge conditions, especially, must meet a minimum rating to remain safe and open to the public.
The M-65 bridge over the Thunder Bay River just south of Long Rapids in Alpena County is an example of the state's aging bridge epidemic. This structure, built in 1953, was rated in poor condition during an inspection in July, with concerns centered on its deck deterioration and the potential for its foundation to be undermined during a heavy rain event and surge in river currents.
Long Rapids Township Fire Department Chief Darin Himes, whose station is about 200 yards north of the bridge, said closing the bridge would block the quickest route to half of his department's coverage area, delaying response times to the southern portion of the township for emergency calls.
"My concern for fire and EMS is the fact there are houses immediately on the south side of that bridge, within a stone's throw, you might say, from our station," Chief Himes said. "And if those people are in need and they have an emergency, it would increase our response time to those residents and to those people significantly. In a life-saving aspect of it, time is everything."
In MDOT's North Region's 21 counties, eight bridges are currently listed in poor condition, with three at risk of closure by 2035, which would affect more than 7,100 road users and the corridors they rely on daily. The cost estimate to replace the M-65 bridge over the Thunder Bay River is roughly $10 million, or twice the region's annual budget for bridge replacement and repairs.
Bridges can take an average of two years to replace, once closed to the public. While bridge replacements are expensive initially, they are considered a long-term asset and are now designed with an 80 to 100-year service life.
"At this rate, by decade's end, nearly 50 percent of state routes, which carry 53 percent of total traffic and 80 percent of commercial traffic, will be in poor condition," said MDOT Director Bradley C. Wieferich. "Without additional investment, those projections will get worse."
"If there is no long-term solution to Michigan's road-funding crisis, considerable progress in recent years will be stalled, meaning contractors will employ fewer workers and road conditions will decline," said Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) Director Susan Corbin. "The effects would spread across industries and communities, causing job losses, shrinking economic activity and creating long-term challenges for Michigan's workers and families."
During a recent Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Rebecca Curtis, MDOT's director of the Bureau of Bridges and Structures (BOBS), shared the reasoning behind the rapidly declining bridge conditions statewide. Curtis explained that most of the state's bridge inventory was built in the 1950s and designed with a 50 to 60-year service life. Because most bridges were built in the same decade, the structures have aged in sync.
As MDOT works to continue addressing declining road and bridge conditions, securing a comprehensive road funding package is becoming more critical. Following the conclusion of the Rebuilding Michigan bond funding program, MDOT will see a decrease of more than half the annual reconstruction budget, bringing the yearly investment for rebuilding roads from $495 million per year to just $222 million per year, and supporting about 2,800 fewer construction jobs in 2026.
