Dec. 22, 2022 – The Michigan Department of Transportation reportedly failed to provide documentation showing proper inspections of aggregates and aggregate suppliers used in road construction projects, according to an audit report. The Detroit News said overall, the audit conducted on department records dated between October 2018 and June 2021 found three material conditions, but also said the department’s operations were sufficient, with some exceptions, in ensuring aggregate quality and moderately effective in administering its prequalified supplier program. But the audit, the department countered, failed to encompass a third level of quality review that serves as a backstop to the two tools the audit targeted. And it was conducted as the department transitions to a new construction management software system that would create a repository of testing and inspecting records and flag missing tests and inspections, said Gregg Brunner, bureau of field services director for the Michigan Department of Transportation. The audit’s findings are separate from an ongoing debate in Michigan over how best to obtain aggregate for the state’s pressing infrastructure needs and whether local communities should be able to ban or limit aggregate mining operations in light of that need.
Michigan Aggregate Audit Concerns
