"Modern infrastructure is critical in ensuring Michigan is on a solid path toward our future," Snyder said. "This collaborative regional pilot is key to improving our statewide infrastructure and will help make Michigan a national leader in infrastructure asset management and planning."
Two announcements on the same plan — one in Coppersville, and the other in Detroit — offered a grand vision of how this plan could work, but few specifics, such as how much the pilot would cost and exactly who would have access to the valuable, yet sensitive, information once it was in the system.
"We need to invest more in infrastructure," Snyder said, after taking a quick tour of the Michigan Department of Transportation offices in downtown Detroit, which showed how the state already is mapping stretches of Woodward and Van Dyke in metro Detroit. "But, we need to do it more efficiently."
In Coopersville, on the state's west side, the governor visited Continental Dairy and also talked about his plans.
Part of the challenge is that much of the state's infrastructure is aging and in the ground, so it's not visible.
"That sounds really simple," Snyder said. "But it's more complicated in practice."
During the tour, presenters talked about the challenges of mapping records that are old — or have little detail.
To illustrate his point, one of them told the governor that one of the plans that the department reviewed was so old that it had a note that mentioned feeding the horses. Moreover, in many cases, as the infrastructure was being built, the technology to digitally map it in 3-D did not exist.
The concept behind the digital mapping was one of the recommendations that emerged from the governor's 21st Century Infrastructure Commission.
The purpose of the pilot, Snyder — along with MDOT director Kirk Steudle and others — said is to begin mapping and develop recommendations on how much money should be spent to map infrastructure throughout the state. In the long run, he said, it is expected to save taxpayers money on unnecessary repairs to streets and maintenance that can prevent disasters.
Other situations from such a system that the state could have benefited from: flooding in Detroit in 2014, contaminated water in Flint — and a recent windstorm that knocked out power to many residents for days.
The governor said he hopes that in the long term some of the cost may be covered by private, and nonprofit money.
"I think we're seeing all people coming together — the various agencies and organizations," Snyder said. "I can't think of an infrastructure player that has come to the table that doesn't see a benefit in this."
©2017 the Detroit Free Press Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
