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Lenawee County’s bridge woes growing

October 25, 2010 14:12

 

MADISON TWP., Mich. —
Lenawee County is losing ground in the effort to replace aging bridges on county and local roads.

A small structure on Beecher Road near Clayton that was closed in the last week will remain shut down at least a year while the Lenawee County Road Commission works on plans and funding to rebuild it.

Another small span over Wellsville Highway north of Deerfield Road near Blissfield was closed Thursday. Plans are being developed for Blissfield and Palmyra townships to consider replacing it.

Only one of five Lenawee County bridge projects submitted for federal funding was picked in the latest round of grant selection by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Road commission managing director Orrin Gregg said MDOT is accepting fewer bridge grant applications next year because the lack of available funding makes the effort to review the paperwork a waste of time.

Gregg serves on a regional committee that reviewed 58 bridge grant applications this year for MDOT.

“We were only able to fund 15,” Gregg said. MDOT decided to restrict the number of applications next year to three per county instead of five, he said.

“There’s a lot of wasted energy and wasted expense going on because we’re nowhere near being able to fund them all,” Gregg said at Thursday’s road commission board meeting.

The Lenawee County bridge project that was among the 15 selected for grants is on Rodesiler Highway in Riga Township. The $725,000 project is scheduled for 2013. Last year, Lenawee County was awarded a grant to replace the closed bridge at Benner Highway and Carleton Road in Dover Township in 2012.

The recently closed Beecher Road structure is smaller than the minimum 20-foot span to qualify for bridge grants, leaving the project to the road commission to pay for on its own.

Assistant managing director/engineer Scott Merillat said a timber bridge could be installed for approximately $200,000. Plans are being drawn up to submit to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. He said the 16-foot structure will likely have to be enlarged to at least 21 feet to meet current state permit requirements.

The road commission has no records on the old structure, he said, but it is believed to be about 80 years old.

Complaints have been coming in about the Beecher Road closure and detour route, Merillat said. Piles of gravel have been dumped at the bridge to keep drivers from using the dangerously eroded structure, he said. Still, he said, tracks were found in the gravel showing people have tried to drive around the barricades.

Gregg said it will be at least a year before a new bridge can be engineered, permitted, funded and built.

The road commission’s primary road heavy maintenance budget is down to only $1.1 million a year, he said. It will be difficult to fit in a bridge project costing $200,000 or more next year, he said, when road budgets are expected to be reduced further.
 

http://www.lenconnect.com/news/local_government/x918941994/Lenawee-County-s-bridge-woes-growing

 

Posted in: Lenawee, News
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