TRAVERSE CITY — Three Mile Road is now passable for Grand Traverse County motorists as road commission crews reopened the roadway Monday following construction work that started earlier this month.
Crews will continue to be present along the road as work continues on the $2.7 million Safe Routes to School project that will install and extend a pedestrian trail system. East Bay Township officials secured a variety of funding sources for the project that began simultaneously with county road commission projects along the Three Mile and Hammond roads corridors.
Road Commission Manager Dan Watkins added in previous project updates that the traffic signal work would support the trail initiative and, as of Monday, Three Mile Road is open to vehicles with various lane shifts in place.
“You can get through there now, but expect some delays,” Watkins said Monday, urging drivers to allow for extended travel times since the remainder of work continues.
Other road projects underway across the county include:
Hammond Road
Repairs are still active on Hammond, west of Three Mile to Townline roads, as crews continue to crush and shape the existing asphalt to prepare for new pavement. The project is the second major construction task taking place on west Hammond Road after the road commission completed the span between Townline and Garfield roads approximately two years ago.
Watkins said the combined Three Mile and Hammond projects that began weeks ago were intended to be completed by early September before school begins Sept. 8 for students across the region.
Currently, the projects are expected to be completed and reopened to traffic by mid-September.
“All the goals were to get this done before school, but nothing has lined up for us the way we had hoped on this project, unfortunately,” Watkins said.
Franke Road
Another project — Franke Road — is nearing completion as pavement is expected to be finished this week, Watkins added.
“We’re waiting on contractors to come in and install some guardrails, they’ll come in and paint lines, but the actual paving should be done this week,” Watkins said.
Franke Road construction kicked off July 7, a two-month-long effort to reorganize the corridor that included entrances and exits to private residences, Meijer’s Traverse City location and the Traverse Area Public Schools’ Montessori campus. The road commission approved a contract with J&N Construction, totaling more than $977,000, to reconstruct the roadway.
The road’s design includes curbs, gutters and sidewalks under a partnership with Garfield Township, as well as adequate traffic space for school zones and delivery semi trucks to the store’s parking lot.
Beitner Road bridge
Work on Beitner Road’s bridge reconstruction is continuing as expected, Watkins said. Anlaan Corporation, the construction firm tasked with the bridge project, has been active at the Boardman River’s edge after work started two weeks ago.
Cofferdams — a temporary, watertight enclosure to create a dry space to perform repairs and construction — were installed as crews begin pouring concrete for the base of the new bridge, Watkins added.
He noted that Brown Bridge Road’s bridge is also holding up well since its completion earlier this summer.
The new Beitner bridge is expected to be open to traffic by the end of the year, Watkins said.
East Silver Lake Road
Motorists should be aware of another road project that begins today on East Silver Lake Road between Rennie School and West Silver Lake roads in Garfield Township as crews begin work to complete a chip/seal treatment on the existing pavement. Watkins said that, later next month, those roads also will receive an inch-and-a-half overlay before temperatures begin to dip moving into fall.
“We’re doing that mix of fixes so we don’t have to do that full $1,000,000-a-mile crush,” he added.
Traffic delays are expected around active work sites, including another Garfield Township site.
on North Long Lake and Zimmerman roads. The intersection and traffic signal work began Monday and will continue with some expected lane shifts and closures, according to the road commission’s Facebook page.
Watkins said the majority of the county’s projects are moving ahead on time as the road commission begins preparing for the upcoming shift in seasons.
“We’re going through our winter maintenance trucks, getting sand and salt in,” Watkins said. “Getting ready for winter.”