TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County’s Road Commission estimates it will cost roughly $9.3 million to repair all the damaged road systems throughout the county, according to Road Commission Manager Dan Watkins.
County road crews began installing a temporary traffic signal at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Hartman Road in an effort to help manage motorists using the designated detours after the Beitner Road bridge collapse last month when Boardman River was flooding.
The main detour on Cass Road was established for drivers to bypass the closed bridge and a temporary light also was installed at the Cass and Hartman roads intersection on April 21.
Watkins explained that the road commission’s damage estimates were submitted last week to both state and federal agencies in an effort to receive relief funding as repairs continue across the region.
“In order to be eligible for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funds, we had to fill out all the locations, take pictures, label them, and come up with an estimated price for repairs,” Watkins said.
The Beitner Road bridge replacement will take a significant portion of that estimate, but Watkins said their estimate covers each road that sustained damage and will need materials and labor to fix in the coming months.
They began installation Tuesday of the newest traffic signal, which will take a few days to be fully operational.
“We’ve been saying about a week’s time, but they’re telling me the project’s going really good,” Watkins said. “There is a possibility you could see it coming in this weekend.”
The timing will depend on when electricity can be installed to make the signal operational, the manager added.
The temporary traffic lights on U.S. 31 and Cass Road are expected to be in use until the Beitner Road bridge is rebuilt, a project that is expected to take approximately six months to complete once construction begins.
“Things are moving along really great with Beitner bridge,” Watkins said. “OHM (consulting firm) was awarded the bid to design the bridge and they submitted it for final review.”
The design plan is currently under review through a few of Michigan’s programs that require approval before construction begins, with Watkins noting that the state’s Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has already issued permits for the project.
It will be three weeks for the current review process to be completed, Watkins added, which is standard for Michigan’s Natural Rivers program.
The Boardman River is one of 16 natural water systems protected by the program, a river protection effort that preserves the natural quality of select rivers throughout the state by regulating use and development through zoning rules.
“Other than that, we are good to move forward with this project,” Watkins said.
Another county bridge under close watch includes the Brown Bridge Road dual-culvert structure, which sustained damage during the flooding, too. According to the manager, the bridge is still closed to traffic as crews assess their remediation efforts.
“There’s a pretty big void there and, luckily, we were able to do enough work there to stop it from doing a complete collapse,” Watkins said. “We had engineers look at it and they believe if we didn’t do what we did, we would have lost that structure.”
Road commissioners met Tuesday evening to hear options on repairs for Brown Bridge Road, based on recommendations from several engineering firms assisting the road commission with its repairs.
The road commission also has carefully watched the weather forecast after more heavy rain has fallen on the region, Watkins added.
“Places that were already compromised or weakened have now taken another round of it,” he said.
The county road commission’s next meeting is 6 p.m. Thursday, May 28, at the commission’s board room, 1881 LaFranier Road, in Traverse City.
The public is welcome to attend.