During Lansing’s State of the City address last week, Mayor Andy Schor said the average rating of city roads has improved in recent years. But is that really true?
The mayor’s claim is kind of true.
Roads across the country are rated under an industrywide system as good, fair or poor using a scale of one to ten.
In 2021, roads maintained by the city of Lansing got an average rating of three point six, up by less than three tenths a percent from a year before. Anything under a four is still considered to be in poor condition.
So, while the scores may have improved slightly, most Lansing roads are in bad shape.
City Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick blames years of underfunding.
“To get back (to) I think where everyone expects our roads to be I would say we'd have to spend an additional, probably 10 to $15 million a year for the next 10 years.”
Schor also acknowledges that Lansing’s pockmarked pavement still need a lot of improvement.