The Road Department for Ionia County maintains 1,381 miles of road and 67 bridges throughout the 576 square mile county. 390 miles of County Primary, 684 miles of County Local, and 309 lane miles of State Trunkline.
While the Road Department establishes the improvement priorities for primary road system, Township government establishes the priorities and their level of funding for improvements on the local road system. Improvement projects such as paving , gravel resurfacing , culvert replacement and dust control , are known as "Heavy Maintenance". Without financial commitment from township boards and residents, most local roads would see very little improvement. This partnership helps provide better service to our joint constituencies and promote a higher quality of life.
Road Departments are funded from gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees.
Originally, Ionia County Road Department was formed as a Road commission in 1919 by a vote of the citizens of Ionia County and charged by law with the duty “to keep in reasonable repair, so that they shall be reasonably safe and convenient for public travel, all county roads, bridges and culverts that are under their care and control, and which are open to public travel”. State laws also require the Road Commission to permit and regulate certain activities in the road right of way, to enforce state restrictions on vehicle size and weight, and to set reasonable standards for adopting new roads into the county system.
Over the past 93 years, the Ionia County road system has grown to include 390 miles that are now designated as County Primary roads. Passage of the McNitt Act in 1931 abolished the old township road system and transferred all miles of township roads to the Road Commission during the 1930’s. These old township roads, together with new roads built since then make up what is now the 684 mile system of County Local roads. Overall, 35% or 378 miles of all Ionia County roads are paved, with the remaining 696 miles being either gravel surfaced or unimproved.
The Michigan Transportation Fund (MTF) is the depository of fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees collected by the state and is the principal source of road commission funding. The collected funds are distributed by a complicated, yet transparent and verifiable formula to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), 535 cities and villages, and the 83 county road commissions. High fuel prices have stifled growth in fuel tax collections over the past several years.
The Road Department works very hard to take advantage of any available special funds, such as MTF Economic Development Funds (TED-A and D) and Federal funds (STP) to shore up revenues. We have worked closely with the Michigan Department of Transportation on development of Safety programs under the Federal program SAFETEA-LU and have submitted several project applications for future project funding under the Local Safety Program and High Risk Rural Roads Program and have been very successful in getting projects funded.
