TRAVERSE CITY -- Dan Kipley would love to see someone fix the pot-holed, crumbling road that twists its way up to Mt. Holiday Ski Area.
But he didn't have great hopes of that happening before the federal stimulus bill was approved, and he doesn't have much now.
"I'm sure with all the major roads and highways in the area, we wouldn't be very high on the list," said Kipley, president of Mt. Holiday Inc.
He's probably correct. Grand Traverse County's road commission asked the federal government for $1.5 million to reconstruct Holiday Road, but it's not likely to qualify for what's believed to be the largest economic stimulus bill in history.
The biggest slice of the $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- $288 billion -- will go to tax cuts. The bill includes $111 billion for infrastructure, but of that, just $27.5 billion is directly slated for road and bridge projects.
Michigan's $853 million piece of the latter figure will be distributed based on existing Federal Highway Administration rules and state law, said Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
That means the Michigan Department of Transportation will take $639 million for state highways, with the rest shared by cities and road commissions across the state.
"When the state takes 75 percent off the top and distributes the rest based on population, it doesn't leave a lot of stimulus for northern Michigan as a whole," said Mary Gillis, manager of the Grand Traverse County Road Commission.
MDOT includes just three northwest Michigan projects on its preliminary statewide project list that stands $100 million over budget and needs trimming. Among the projects that may make the cut: repaving a section of M-88 in Antrim County, adding a passing lane to M-72 in Leelanau County and replacing the U.S. 131 bridge over the Manistee River in Wexford County.
Grand Traverse County and Traverse City submitted $42 million worth of road and bridge projects for funding before knowing how much money would be available or how it would be distributed.
State officials said funding for local subdivision roads, such as Holiday Road, or $15.5 million for city side streets submitted by Traverse City, won't qualify.
Gillis said it looks like the county will receive less than $500,000 for rural road projects and less than $750,000 for roads in the Traverse City urban area, split among the city, county and Leelanau County Road Commission.
"I think the public is going to be disappointed we're not getting millions," Gillis said. "At the most, this is a drop in the bucket."
City engineer Tim Lodge said because "shovel ready" projects receive priority, he anticipates those already in the works will be advanced. For now, the city's two most pressing projects are reconstruction of Eighth Street from Woodmere Avenue to Garfield Avenue at $750,000, and replacement of the Kids Creek culvert beneath Wadsworth Street for an estimated $350,000.
"Last spring, the culvert failed and it's a slow, painful death," Lodge said. "That project needs to get done ... and started before the spring thaw to avoid flooding."
Wadsworth is a local street and thus the project may not qualify for federal road money, but Lodge will wait as long as possible to see if any other federal infrastructure funds appear.
"I don't want to get into something, then find out we could have had it paid for by the federal government," Lodge said.
Gillis said the road commission's next major rural road project is the $500,000 resurfacing of Karlin Road near Interlochen from M-137 to Youker Road. She's also suggesting the road commission consider moving up the widening of Cedar Run Road to three lanes from Gallagher Road to Gray Road for $300,000.
But Gillis doesn't want to pave anything with designated urban funds. She instead wants to "weld" paint into road surfaces.
She's asking the road commission to consider spending $475,000 on pavement markings that are heat-applied to roads. Such markings are about four times more expensive than regular paint, but Gillis said they last four to six years rather than the usual nine months.
Both the city and county have done small test areas with good results.
"(Markings) we did last year are still there and visible while the painted ones across the street are already scraped away," Gillis said. "There's no point in putting them down if you can't see them."
Gillis said not having to paint each year would save money in future years, while motorists would benefit from markings that don't disappear by the middle of each winter.
"Pavement markings are one of the biggest public safety improvements you can do with the least cost," Gillis said. "We're trying to position ourselves to get the most that we can and make the best use of what we get."
