[idw2s]

I hope I'm not about to step on anyone's toes, and knowing me, I'm gonna need a crowbar to pry my foot from my mouth, but...

I've noticed you don't see a lot of trans-continental truck traffic here. That is nice for us, in that we drivers are not competing with trucks, and idiots who don't know how to drive around a truck.

Michigan's unique and beautiful geographical features limits the number of long-haul truckers that would pass through the state. I suspect if Wisconsin and Michigan were physically connected somehow around mid-state, you'd get more truck traffic.

That's probably only a small loss of revenue, but it also limits the number of manufacturing jobs, and where they are located. If you have to go south before you can go east or west.... you're wasting miles each year compared to other states with similar issues that are better connected to existing trucking routes.

So... a bridge? Two? East and west? Actually, I think any truck entering from Wisconsin would likely head toward Detroit anyway, but....

Yes, I know we already have Big Mac, but looking at the existing big interstates, Big Mac is a ways off the beaten trucking path...

Sorry, I realize I'm a noob.... but I sit here, marveling at the resilience, the knowledge, the work ethic of the folks I've met here, and I just don't get why Michigan is in the situation it's in. I had a guy design 3 sided shed that is a work of art. He sat at my table, did a very brief sketch, gave us a list of things to buy, and... we have a sturdy, well constructed shed. I know for a lot of folks here, that's nothing amazing, but I guarantee you, none of the other places I've lived could someone (let alone lots of someones) design something like that on the fly in about 10 minutes and have it be that well put together.

I don't get it. I just don't get it. When a state that has unparalleled human resources, why are so many of them... under-utilized? There has to be a reason people aren't flooding here to snap up these amazing employees.... So my brain goes round and round trying to figure out what the barriers are. Because I just plain don't get it.

Sorry... back to actual intelligent discussion now.

[scolls]

It is impossible to build a bridge across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. Do you realize how hard it was to build the Mackinaw Bridge across the straits? Besides, there's nothing in northern Michigan to export. All the truck traffic is concentrated around Detroit. Besides, 94 connects Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit. Chicago is near the bottom of Lake Michigan so the shorter distance across Lake Michigan is insignificant.

[scolls]

Also US 10 ends in Ludington and continues in Mantiowoc Wisconsin. You can take a ferry from Ludinton to Mantiowoc and it's 60 miles across Lake Michigan. It's impossible to build a 60 mile long bridge in a lake with an average depth of 280 feet.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by scolls

Also US 10 ends in Ludington and continues in Mantiowoc Wisconsin. You can take a ferry from Ludinton to Mantiowoc and it's 60 miles across Lake Michigan. It's impossible to build a 60 mile long bridge in a lake with an average depth of 280 feet.

Nothing is impossible. It is just expensive.

[Perferator]

Wasnt there talk about a bridge across the Bering Sea somewhere?

[wagonman76]

Bering Strait crossing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Except that one would be 2 bridges about half the 60 mile gap due to a convenient island in between.

I think we are very lucky the Mackinac Bridge got built when it did. Because if it was this day and age, it wouldn't stand a chance. Shell out that much money for 3% of the population? They'd never approve. And back then they built it in about 3 years. Would never happen today. These days they will spend 6 months just to RESURFACE a 2 mile piece of road, or 9 months to replace a short bridge.

[scolls]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Nothing is impossible. It is just expensive.

How you propose we make thousand foot tall supports for a bridge in a lake that can reach over 900 feet deep? If it was possible the Mackinaw Bridge wouldn't be a suspension bridge.

[idw2s]

Originally Posted by scolls

How you propose we make thousand foot tall supports for a bridge in a lake that can reach over 900 feet deep? If it was possible the Mackinaw Bridge wouldn't be a suspension bridge.

Okay, so folks have made some excellent points already, though I'm not necessarily talking about just Michigan products, but if there was a far northern route across the northern tier, it might not leave Michigan out of the major interstates... But the fact that the US dips to the south as you head East is a problem.

That said (and I know nothing of bridge mechanics, so I'm likely making a stupid suggestion) but what about floating bridges like they have in Washington? What about islands between the two states?

I dunno. There are probably better solutions, I just think there must be a solution, and I figure trying to figure it out is better than stewing about it. I'm afraid I'm the embodiment of the quote attributed to Edison, about finding thousands of ways not to make a lightbulb. I'll probably fail spectacularly before I come close to succeeding, but I can't help trying.

[Retroit]

Transportation costs are minimal. We didn't need a bridge to China to flood our store shelves with "Made in China" goods.

[scolls]

You're trying to create solutions to a problem that doesn't exist. There is no real industry in northern Michigan or northern Wisconsin. Michigan and Wisconsin are linked through the UP via US 2. The major industrial centers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan are all connected via 94 and in terms of trucking, why would you want to bypass Chicago and build a bridge from Milwaukee to Michigan?

Plus people have been bitching and moaning over a 3 mile long light rail in Detroit. You think they will approve a 60 mile bridge to nowhere?