The Mackinac Bridge Authority is an independent state agency of the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

that operates the

Mackinac Bridge The Mackinac Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac, connecting the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. Opened in 1957, the bridge (familiarly known as "Big Mac" and "Mighty Mac") is the worl ...

across the Straits of Mackinac. The Mackinac Bridge Authority has been directed by the state of Michigan to maintain the Mackinac Bridge as a self-supporting facility. The Mackinac Bridge is a

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

, with the tolls set at a level determined by the authority and its governing board.

History

The Mackinac Bridge Authority was created in 1950 to study the feasibility of constructing a suspension bridge to connect Michigan's

Lower Peninsula The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...

with its

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

The MBA was empowered by legislation in 1952 "to issue revenue bonds 'for the purpose of paying for the cost of a bridge' ". The authority managed the bridge's construction from 1954 until 1957, and has overseen the operation of the bridge since its opening on November 1, 1957, although the authority was originally scheduled for dissolution in 1986 after the last of the bonds were to be paid in full. Over the course of 2004 and 2005, the

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstat ...

(MDOT) Director Gloria Jeff made moves to challenge the independence of the authority against previous practices claiming that the authority is not an independent agency. In 2004, Jeff moved $25 million from the authority to the Michigan Treasury construing that the Michigan State Treasurer is the authority's treasurer. On August 12, 2005, Jeff asserted engineering inspections and insurance would be handled by MDOT instead of the MBA based on a 40-year-old Attorney General's opinion; Jeff would not release the opinion. In September 2005, Governor

Jennifer Granholm Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-American lawyer, educator, author, political commentator, and politician serving as the 16th United States secretary of energy since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she pre ...

was in talks between MDOT and the MBA to develop an agreement between the two agencies to solve the recent issues brought to the fore as the MDOT Director attempt to cut cost, due to statewide budget pressures, at the authority by reducing the board's power. The talks ended with an agreement for the bridge authority to resume operations as it has in the past with MDOT implementing its decisions and the MDOT Chief Deputy Director Kirk Steudle assigned the director's position on the authority board.

Board

Six members of the governing board of the Mackinac Bridge Authority are appointed by the Governor of Michigan; the Transportation Department Director is an ex officio member. The MBA is an independent state agency responsible for the Mackinac Bridge and thus maintains that section of the overall State Trunkline Highway System. The MBA works with the

but does not report to it. The executive secretary of the MBA is appointed by MDOT with MBA approval, and the MDOT director serves on the board. William Gnodtke has been the chairman of the board since 2002, and the executive secretary is Kim Nowack since 2019.

References

{{authority control Mackinac County, Michigan State agencies of Michigan Toll road authorities of the United States