LANSING - Happy birthday, MDOT.

Your 100th birthday, which took place July 1, is a milestone for the traveling public and for the men and women in the building trades who have built and re-built Michigan's roads, bridges and related infrastructure.

On June 28, Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) paid tribute to the Michigan Department of Transportation with a declaration to Congress. Not a run-of-the mill political discourse, Stupak offered some interesting tidbits and history that should make Michiganians proud of their leading role in transportation history.

Following are excerpts of Stupak's comments:

"We pay tribute today to an agency in Michigan that has spent the last 100 years improving the means by which those in the far reaches of our beautiful peninsulas utilize our most well-known state product, the automobile. Today, we in the Michigan Congressional delegation would like to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Michigan Department of Transportation also known as MDOT.

"It all began with the innovative spirit of a bicycle enthusiast and entrepreneur, Horatio "Good Roads" Earle, when he became Michigan's first highway commissioner. He began a movement by aligning the professional road builders and engineers to improve road transportation throughout the state.

"On July 1, 1905, the voters in the State of Michigan overwhelmingly approved state spending for roads making Michigan the 18th state in the union to establish an agency to oversee transportation. Since that day that the State Highway Department was established, Michigan has not only led the world in automotive advancements but has achieved many firsts in the state, country and world for transportation initiatives.

"There were many transportation firsts in Michigan including:

• The construction of the first international underwater railroad tunnel (Port Huron-Sarnia Tunnel) in 1891;
• The first international underwater automobile tunnel (Detroit-Windsor Tunnel) in 1930;
• And the first freeway-to-freeway interchange on Jan. 18, 1955 at I-94 (Edsel Ford) and M-10 (John Lodge) in Detroit, permitting motorists to make turns "simply by moving in the direction they wish to go."
• Both the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit in 1929 and the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 were the world's longest suspension bridges when they were built.
• The world's largest automobile tire, utilizing the Ferris wheel ride from the World's Fair in New York from 1964, can be found next to eastbound I-94 just east of the M-39 (Southfield Freeway) interchange in Allen Park.

"MDOT was also the World's first transportation agency to automate management and processing of construction products from the construction site through contractor payment, saving taxpayers more than $20 million per year in 1993.

"The national innovations are endless but include some of the most significant to our everyday living, like:

• The nation's first mile of concrete highway built by the Wayne County Road Commission on Woodward Avenue between 6 and 7 Mile roads in Detroit in 1909;
• The first painted centerline in 1911 and the first state trunkline in the nation to sport a centerline from Marquette to Negaunee Road (now US 41/M 28) in 1917.
• The nation's first highway materials testing lab was at the University of Michigan in 1912,
• And the nation's first four-way red/yellow/green electric traffic light was at the comer of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit as the invention of Detroit Police Officer William Potts in 1918.
• Other national firsts include the first roadside park on US-2 in Iron County, completed in 1919;
• The first practical highway snowplow was built in Munising in 1922;
• The first "super highway" was an eight-lane divided highway with a 40-foot median built in 1923 along Woodward Avenue between Detroit and Pontiac.

"MDOT was the first highway department to use yellow centerlines to designate "no passing" zones in 1927. Michigan has the nation's first state operated information center, which opened in 1935 near New Buffalo. Michigan was the nation's first state to complete a toll-free border-to-border interstate on I-94 running 205 miles from Detroit to New Buffalo in 1960.

"In 1977 US-31 in Oceana County won the national "most beautiful highway" by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The nation's largest concrete segmental bridge opened up in 1988 when the Zilwaukee Bridge opened carrying I-75 over the Saginaw River. Recently, in 2003, Gloria Jeff was named the director of MDOT becoming the first female and African American State Transportation director in the nation.

"Mr. Speaker these are only a few of the facts, figures and historical moments that are seemingly infinite examples that mark the significant influence this agency has had on transportation in our country and the world.

"However, the greatness and innovation displayed by MDOT throughout this past 100 years is not limited to our history and evolution as a modern state. The recent state accomplishments and the goals laid out for the future show the numerous advancements this department continues to make on behalf of it residents.

"Horatio "Good Roads" Earle would be proud of the efforts to make our roads, highways and bridges better each year. According to MDOT, since 1999, they have completed more than 93 percent of the road and bridge preservation programs announced in the five-year program, making 88 percent of the vehicle miles traveled on Michigan freeways done so on good pavement.

"In the last three years, the capitol preventative maintenance program increased the life span of 3,710 miles of highway by up to seven years with a special treatment. Additionally, MDOT has made significant improvements to trunkline bridges through the state due to strategic planning as well as opening almost 80 miles of widened roadways and passing relief lanes to relieve congestion, reduce delays and improve safety. Other program successes have been in overall safety, economic development projects, parking, roadside programs, and environmental quality.

"Since its inception by Mr. Earle, MDOT has focused on the quality of its services and resources, the effectiveness of their work, the dedication to the needs of their travelers, the integrity to improve transportation the right way the first time, and the pride of being the best as what they do.

"I ask the United States House of Representatives to join the Michigan Congressional Delegation in congratulating the Michigan Department of Transportation on its first 100 years and even better success through the next century."

A WORK GANG of Depression-era road builders. Federal money for roads in the 1930s was split between the Highway Department and Welfare Department, putting thousands of "Reliefers" to work.

In 1911, the Wayne County Road commission painted the nation's first centerline, considered one of the most important safety devices in auto transportation history. MDOT photos