Motorists could see orange barrels and construction equipment along the edge of North Henry Street, rather than massive cracks and potholes.

The crumbling street is one of more than a dozen roads in Northeast Michigan slated for repair under a transportation bill working its way through Congress.

"I wouldn't drive on the outside lanes" of Henry Street, said Emily A. Klopf, who owns Josephine's Pizzeria and Family Restaurant at 1406 N. Henry St. with her husband, Brion.

A delivery driver at the restaurant had a serious problem with the road's condition recently.

"One of the potholes threw something out, and on the way here, he had no brakes at all," she said.

The driver averted trouble because there was no traffic, which is rare for a road that sees more than 13,000 cars a day, according to Bay City Area Transportation Study Committee traffic counts.

Bay City stands to receive $2.7 million for repairs on the 1.5-mile stretch of North Henry Street.

The money would go toward reconstructing the roadway, widening lanes, replacing water and sewer lines and adding turn lanes at North and South Union roads, according to information received from the office of U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee, D-Flint.

David Engelhardt, BCATS director, could not be reached for comment on specifics or to say when the project would start.

Motorists now are forced into the inner lanes because large potholes line the edges of the road.

The funding, a renewal of the Transportation Equity Act, passed the House of Representatives on Thursday and will go to the Senate as early as this week.

Michigan stands to receive a total of $185 million in additional road funds.

In Arenac County, $1.6 million would be earmarked to upgrade a six-mile stretch of Maple Ridge Road in the northern part of the county.

The improvements are part of a long-term plan to improve all-season truck routes in the county. Completion of the project would cut a 30-mile trip in half, according to Darren J. Pionk, engineer manager for the Arenac County Road Commission.

"Right now, we don't have a good east-west route," he said. "That would give us an all-season route tying in M-65 west to M-33 across the top tier of Arenac County."

Currently, the road cannot handle year-round, heavy truck traffic, and has seasonal load restrictions in place.

Workers will reconstruct the surface and stream crossings, improve drainage, and widen the lanes and the shoulder of the proposed truck route.

The earliest construction would start in Arenac County is 2006.

"Our construction schedule is pretty much set for this year," Pionk said.

The federal transportation bill will fund $284 billion dollars in road projects across the country. It is expected to sail through the Senate, and President George W. Bush has shown no objection to signing it into law, according to Peter N. Karafotas, press secretary for Kildee.

- Josh Grosteffon is a staff writer for The Times. He can be reached at 894-9647.