TRAVERSE CITY — Contract renegotiations between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the construction firm tabbed to build a bidirectional fish passageway in Traverse City are complete.
Work on FishPass, as the project is known, will begin in June, according to a release from Traverse City.
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That’s more than three years after a court challenge prompted a 13th Circuit Court judge to stop work at the Union Street Dam the passageway is set to replace.
Costs increased from $19.3 million to $23.2 million for wet work the project will require, plus an as-yet-unspecified increase in work outside of the water, according to the release. But $5.2 million in contingency funding, plus time and planning for additional funds, should be enough to complete the project in 2027.
Contractor Spence Brothers Construction will remove the dam after placing a temporary one, then building a headworks and labyrinth weir. That headworks will feed a 400-foot-plus concrete channel topped by a gantry crane. That’s where scientists will use various sorting and other techniques to get desirable fish through while keeping invasive species and other unwanted migratory aquatic life out.
Plans are to build a nature-like channel parallel to the concrete one, and build a bridge across the river and various park amenities on the south bank.
Watch Record-Eagle.com for updates to this developing story.