In the United States, Michigan’s escalating dam crisis is laying bare the state of the nation’s ageing infrastructure. Governor Gretchen Whitmer pointed to the situation — which has included flooding in areas like Traverse City, where municipality workers scrambled to clear debris from the Boardman River Weir — as a stark illustration of decades of deferred maintenance.
The crisis is centred on the Cheboygan area and comes as climate change intensifies the strain on structures that were built for a different era. Whitmer’s warning resonates nationally, with the American Society of Civil Engineers having long rated the country’s dam infrastructure as being in need of urgent investment.
