ADAMS TOWNSHIP – The Houghton County Road Commission (HCRC) has been awarded a Transportation Economic Development Fund Category (TDEF) F grant to rebuild approximately 3,000 feet of roadway in Adams Township.

The goal of Category is to provide system continuity with the secondary all-season road system.

Its purpose is to provide funding for transportation projects that:

• Improve access to the state all-season system

• Improve safety and all-season capabilities on routes having high commercial traffic

• Are coordinated with the secondary all-season system (TEDF Category D) or provide all-season routes within an urban area

According to the Michigan Dept. of Transportation, the HCRC will rebuild Erickson Drive from M-26 west approximately 3,000 feet. Erickson Drive provides access from M-26 to a gravel pit waste site, Houghton County transfer station, power transformer station and logging property.

The road was not designed to handle the current volume of commercial traffic and has deteriorated to poor condition. Rebuilding the road will bring it up to all-season standards and ensure continuity in the county’s all-season road system.

HCRC Engineer/ Manager Keven Harju said funding for the $854,952 project will come from a number of sources.

“The grant for the category F is $375,000.,” he said, “and then, we’re going to use that with our Small urban Funding, for $385,000, which requires a 20% match, so we have to use matching funds of $94,952.”

The Small Urban Program provides federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funding to areas with a population of 5,000 to 49,999. Road and transit capital projects are eligible for Small Urban funds.

All road projects must be located on the federal-aid highway system and within the federal urban area boundary.

Projects must be consistent with regional land use and development plans.

The project is listed on the Houghton County 2026-2030 Transportation Improvement Plan, for 2027.

“We were planning all the time to use our Urban Funds,” Harju said, “and we were hoping to get the Category F, because it gets so much commercial traffic, especially with the transfer station there, so we applied for Category F and we were successful.”

Harju said the funding is for the 2027 fiscal year, but preparatory work must be done before the road construction can begin.

“This summer (2026), we’ll pick up all the survey data we need, and soil borings we need to do, and pavement design and determine how much under-cutting we have to do on the road to bring it up to specification, so we don’t have to worry about more damage with the heavy traffic.”