With the return of Michigan’s winter fury, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is bringing back its “Road Watchers” program. MDOT is recruiting returning and new Road Watchers in the 13-county Grand Region to participate in periodic surveys measuring winter highway conditions during the 6-9 a.m. commuting period on some key routes in their area:

• I-196 in Allegan, Ottawa, and Kent counties
• I-96 in Muskegon, Ottawa, Kent, and Ionia counties
• US-131 in Allegan, Kent, Montcalm, Mecosta, and Osceola counties
• US-31 from Grand Haven to Muskegon
• M-6 in Ottawa and Kent counties
• M-37 from M-46 to M-82 in Muskegon and Newaygo counties

“Volunteers from last year provided excellent feedback for us to improve our winter maintenance efforts,” said MDOT Grand Region Associate Engineer for Operations Tim Little. “Our region grew from 8 to 13 counties and we’ve added new routes for volunteers to watch this year.”

Road watchers are polled randomly for each storm event and asked to participate in an online survey about the road conditions they encountered. Surveys should only take a few moments to complete and all results will be anonymous. MDOT compiles the survey results to track winter highway conditions with the goal of improving winter maintenance practices and response time.

To volunteer, visit www.michigan.gov/roadwatchers.