On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Brad Wieferich, MDOT chief operations officer and chief engineer, talks about major road and bridge projects completed on state trunklines in the past year, featured in MDOT’s year-end video. 

Among the projects discussed: 

• I-69/I-475 in Flint, rebuilding bridges and 2 miles of highway.
• I-75/US-23 in Mackinaw City, repaving and a new bridge for US-23 over I-75, $12.3 million.
• US-2 in Bessemer, rebuilding of the road and storm sewer upgrades, $9 million,
• I-496 in Lansing, rebuilding/repairing of 17 bridges and nearly 3 miles of road, $80 million.
• US-31/I-94/I-196 in Benton Harbor, rebuilding 3.5 miles of I-94 and building new bridges at Britain Avenue and Benton Center Road, $94 million.
• Second Avenue Bridge over I-94 in Detroit, replacing the original structure with the state's first network tied arch bridge, $26 million
• I-96 in eastern Kent County, rebuilding more than 2 miles of the expressway between Thornapple River Drive and Whitneyville Avenue, $15 million.

Wieferich also talks about some of the unique challenges MDOT staff and contractors face because of the pandemic, inflation, and supply chain issues.