Michigan panel OKs $3.5B in borrowing to rebuild state roads

A state panel has authorized borrowing $3.5 billion to roughly double spending on state road and bridge construction over five years, hours after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the plan in her State of the State speech. The State Transportation Commission unanimously approved the Rebuilding Michigan program on Thursday after hearing details from the state Department of Transportation. Spending will rise from nearly $3.9 billion to $7.3 billion over the five-year period. It will allow for 73 new projects in high-traffic areas and enable the state to covert other planned projects to reconstruction, rather than resurfacing.