April, 2014 — Highway roadsides in lower Michigan get their first cleanup of the year beginning Saturday. Volunteers participating in the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Adopt-A-Highway program will pick up litter from April 12 to 20.
“The long, hard winter decimated MDOT’s maintenance budget,” said State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle. “I want to thank Adopt-A-Highway volunteers for stepping up to clean our roadsides and help MDOT focus its limited funds on fixing our roads.”
Due to snow still on the ground, the first Adopt-A-Highway pickup for northern lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula will be later, from April 26 to May 4. Statewide, there will be a summer pickup from July 12 to 20, and a fall pickup from Sept. 20 to 28.
In 2013, Adopt-A-Highway groups collected an estimated 70,000 bags of trash, a cost benefit to the state of $5.5 million. Volunteers wear high-visibility, yellow-green safety vests required by federal regulations when working within a highway’s right of way. MDOT provides the vests and trash bags for free, and arranges to haul away the trash.
Current volunteers include members of various civic groups, businesses and families. Crew members have to be at least 12 years old and each group must number at least three people.
Sections of highway are still available for adoption. Groups are asked to adopt a section for at least two years. Adopt-A-Highway signs bearing a group’s name are posted along the stretch of adopted highway. There is no fee to participate.
For more information, people should visit www.michigan.gov/adoptahighway.
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