Photo: Mark Hall via Motor City Muckraker
As our state lawmakers play around with politics, Michigan roads keep crumbling and posing a danger to motorists.
Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker reports that chunks of concrete and reinforced steel bars are scattered below I-75’s towering Rouge River Bridge. He goes on to write:
On some days, light pokes through holes on the long-neglected span, which is used by 115,000 vehicles a day and rises 103 feet above the Rouge. The soaring concrete columns are cracked, and portions are breaking apart.
Although state and federal officials concluded earlier this year that the bridge is “structurally deficient” and in need of critical repair, the 48-year-old span remains open and won’t be fixed for at least two more years, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).
Last week, a gaping, 4-foot hole opened up on the bridge, exposing the reinforced steel bars, some of which snapped off and fell to the ground. Beneath the deteriorating span, crews patched up the widening hole with thin wood boards.
“It scares the hell out of me,” said Jordan Collins, who drives to work from Detroit to Downriver every weekday. “The worst part is getting stuck in traffic (because of an accident) and seeing how far from the ground you are.”