By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

A recent report from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments indicates that roads are improving in the region.

SEMCOG recently released the 2021 Federal Aid Road Rating results for its 7-county region, which includes Livingston County. According to their report, while roads are typically evaluated on a 2-year cycle, due to the pandemic, all major roads were evaluated in 2021. In total, 21,082 lane miles of major roads were surveyed. These are all of the lane miles in SEMCOG’s region that are eligible for federal funds.

Using the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating, or PASER system, 560 lane miles were improved to “good” condition compared to the 2019 survey. Overall 23-percent of roads are now considered to be in “good” condition, which is up 2-percent from 2019.

Thirty-four-percent of the major road network is in poor condition, but that is 9-points lower than 2 years ago.

SEMCOG reports that local communities and the Michigan Department of Transportation have spent approximately $1.5-billion in this time, with much of that on large cost, multi-year projects.

More information on road conditions can be found on SEMCOG’s Pavement Condition Map, online. See the map here: www.maps.semcog.org/Pavement Condition/