LANSING, MI — The County Road Association (CRA) of Michigan welcomed more than 1,200 people to the Lansing Center for its three-day annual Highway Conference and Road Show. The road show saw record numbers of attendees and exhibitors in the Lansing Center’s exhibit halls, which were filled with heavy machinery involved with road construction and maintenance.
From snow plows to tractors, bulldozers to road recyclers, patrons got up-close looks at many of the machines that help care for the 90,000 miles of Michigan roads for which county road agencies are responsible. Informational sessions from vendors were also held on a new roundabout stage in the center of the action.
For the conference, hundreds of county road agency staff and road commissioners participated in interactive presentations on a variety of topics, which included automated vehicles and local roads, presenting numbers to your board or boss and specialized training on the new bridge bundling initiative with the Michigan Department of Transportation.
The keynote speaker for the conference was Herman Moore, the former Detroit Lion wide receiver and current entrepreneur, philanthropist and professional speaker. Moore spoke about the topic, “You are your own competition.”
Next year’s event is planned for March 10-12, 2020, at the Lansing Center.
The 83 members of the County Road Association of Michigan represent the unified voice for the county transportation infrastructure system in Michigan. Collectively, Michigan’s county road agencies manage 75 percent of all roads in the state, including 90,000 miles of roads and 5,700 bridges. County road agencies also maintain the state’s highway system in 64 counties.