According to a report from mlive.com, Senate Bill 105 was approved in the Senate and is working its way through the House transportation subcommittee, before heading to the appropriations committee and then the full House.
The news agency reports that the bill would earmark $5 million in Michigan Transportation Fund money for a new Movable Bridge Fund. This would benefit Bay City, which owns two drawbridges, as well as nine other municipalities in Michigan.
“We’re getting close on this,” Green tells the news agency. “Once it’s all done, it would be a huge win for Bay City.”
“An extra $500,000 every year that we can put toward local streets can go a long ways,” Bill Bohlen, Bay City’s public works director tells the news agency. “With that kind of money, we could reconstruct four or five blocks of road each year and resurface even more.”
If Green’s bill passes, it would be an extra bonus for those municipalities with movable bridges.
“I’ve been working on this for a long time,” Green tells the news agency. “If we can get that money back into local roads, it’s going to make a huge difference.”
The video below shows Bay City’s Liberty Bridge in operation from inside the structure.
