I-73 Background | I-73 Foreground
I-73 Future Ground | The Area in Question

by Sybil Kolon and Bob Kellum

A central Michigan freeway was conceived in the late 50’s as part of a comprehensive state highway system to link the populated areas of the state with recreational areas in the north. US-127 south of Jackson was never completed, in part because an interchange on the Ohio Turnpike could not be arranged. The existing road is a combination of limited access freeway and 2-4 lane highway.

In the early ‘90’s the concept for a new interstate expressway began to take shape. I-73 was to originate in South Carolina and pass through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio before terminating at the Canadian border in Detroit. With increased federal emphasis on global trade, Michigan’s Canadian connection made it a logical destination and gave a political advantage to the evolving concept.

Aided by the enthusiasm of state and regional corridor associations along its route, I-73 is on its way to becoming a reality. The concept has gained momentum as it has worked its way past a host of political obstacles and legal requirements. A patchwork of progress has created the expectation that some form of the roadway will exist over most of its length. In its entirety, I-73 could include over a thousand miles of newly constructed roadway. Although road building remains a politically sensitive issue, the concept of I-73 has managed to stay on track.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) became involved to redefine the I-73 route through central Michigan to the Canadian border at Sault Ste. Marie. This new MDOT plan has energized its long dormant central transportation corridor plans. MDOT is currently exploring the feasibility of various alternative routes for I-73 that would connect the Toledo area with US-127 near Jackson (see map on back page). The route and type of roadway are the subject of the 18 month federally funded feasibility study that is now underway.

MDOT has hired a consultant, The Corradino Group of Louisville KY, to study the Michigan portion of the route. Two sets of public meetings were held in September and December and additional public meetings are scheduled every six to eight weeks through December 2000.

The public has been assured from the outset that the study will consider a full spectrum of alternatives, including no action at all, improvements to existing roads, and a number of new expressway corridors that bisect the River Raisin watershed. Any new road construction, including a freeway, will require a separate and more detailed environmental impact study lasting about two years. Additional time would be required for funding, design work and acquisition of rights-of-way, should that become necessary.

Various rationales have been put forth to justify the new Michigan roadway including national security, energy efficiency, safety, air quality, economic growth and traffic congestion. An assessment of transportation needs and a study of social, economic and environmental issues are scheduled for later in the process.

The Feasibility Study process is made up of eight steps, many of which overlap. They include: Public Involvement, Data Collection, Assessment of Needs, Alternatives, First Level Screening, Practical Alternatives, Social, Economic and Environmental Studies. The final Corridor Study report will summarize all previous steps and contain an atlas of the recommended alternatives.

I-73 Background | I-73 Foreground
I-73 Future Ground | The Area in Question

by Bob Kellum

It is reasonable to suggest that a political juggernaut lurks in the seemingly benign MDOT feasibility study for I-73. Why does a significant planning opportunity feel like little more than the push and pull of individual interests? Why do noble intentions threaten to disintegrate into defensive struggles? These are not easy questions to answer, but they relate directly to our future and need to be asked.

The reality of our situation is that we are early in a planning process where powerful political, economic and selfish interests cast their heavy shadows across human problems that deserve careful consideration. It is a highly charged environment where potentially staggering windfalls and shortfalls hang in the balance. With the stakes so high, it is difficult to imagine a fair and objective process. Yet it is our right and our responsibility to safeguard the public process on which so much depends.

Any process that truly serves the public grants both the right and the responsibility to its citizenry to assess the weights of competing values and to explore the limits of what is “reasonable.” The road building industry has learned the hard way that it must deliver on the promise to carefully look at all reasonable alternatives and fully consider both sides of the ledger. The MDOT study appears to be structured as a true public process that warrants cautious optimism.

However, the values of a public process are jeopardized by our ignorance and misconception. A public process requires our service to it. The process does not exist to serve us. Service is a core right and a responsibility. If the public horse is not pulling the public cart, then we should not be under the delusion that it is a public procession. A broad coalition of special or self interest draft horses is not a valid substitute for the public horse.

Burdened by self interests, there is little hope for the process to yield true progress. Unfettered, there is no limit to its potential. To truly serve the public, we must unburden the process of our desire to control it. From that point on, there are no sacred cows and no safe assumptions. To forgo that risk is simply to forgo the opportunities in the process itself.

The MDOT feasibility study is a reality that can not be wished away. It is an opportunity to be taken advantage of. The people in this region will make knowing and unknowing choices that determine the degree of “public” in the process. The study will issue a report on which nameless persons will base decisions about our future. I cling to the conviction that the process, however it unfolds, will benefit from our thoughtful and generous service.

I-73 Background | I-73 Foreground
I-73 Future Ground | The Area in Question

by Bob Kellum

In an effort to illustrate the flagrant misuse of public process, I offer the following gently sarcastic and admittedly one sided, call to arms. I caution the reader that an inverse call to arms could just as easily be written that would point the same discomforting finger in the other direction:

Lets get one thing straight. A new I-73 expressway is the answer, never mind the question. The most important thing now is that we start with, and are firm in, the correctness of the answer. Due process, fair use of limited public resources and protection of the environment, all dictate that we plan far in advance for a trouble free march toward an inevitable conclusion that we all know to be right.

Fortunately we do not have to get too involved in the logistics of the process. MDOT has hired an impartial consulting firm to insure that planning requirements are adequately addressed. If we are steadfast in our conviction, the planning process must confirm the foregone conclusion or suffer the humiliation and political suicide of arriving at a different conclusion.

However, we do have a lot of work ahead of us and we must be clear in our purpose. The new expressway and the greater good must be uttered in the same breath and without pause. The hint of doubt between them creates a void into which questions will creep. We must avoid questions for which an I-73 expressway is not the logical and best answer. Where such questions cannot be avoided, they must be managed and controlled. In some instances, a soft defensive deflection works well, while on other occasions a hard hitting, aggressive offense works best. A decisive answer will trump an indecisive question, but allow a legitimate question to gain clarity and it will carry the day.

The issue will generate public and private meetings, as well as social and casual conversations. All of these can be our strength or our weakness. We should never lose sight of the benefits of subtly narrowing public awareness while quietly foreclosing the options to a new expressway. It is of utmost importance that we advance by daylight in patient lock-stepped solidarity and by night, under cover of darkness, by scurrying ahead to switch the road signs and block the forks in the road.

Don’t be discouraged, its not that hard. A maze is always easier to solve if traced backward from its destination and we’ve all done that. We just have to cover our tracks so as not to expose the true nature of our enterprise.

I-73 Background | I-73 Foreground
I-73 Future Ground | The Area in Question

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