The Leelanau County Road Commission is getting ready to strengthen the bridge on County Road 651 over Victoria Creek, just north of Cedar. The project will cause delays for people coming to and from Lake Leelanau and Leland via Traverse City but will lift load restrictions on the road and allow the road commission to drive plow trucks over the bridge in the future.
The timeframe is anticipated to be two weeks. The start date of the project is still uncertain at the time of publication as it is weather permitting, but it should be completed by the end of April. The contractor will use an epoxy material that works best when the temperature is roughly 50 degrees and rising during the day, according to road commission Engineer Craig Brown.
The contract went to John Henry Excavation Inc. for $109,700. Brown explained that crews will use pins to connect the I-beams underneath the bridge to the concrete deck, which will limit its flexing beneath the extreme weight of the vehicles above.
“To prevent the slippage between the I-beams and the concrete, we need to put shear pins up through the beam and into the concrete,” Brown said. By drilling through the concrete and the beam and filling the holes with epoxy, they will “solidify the concrete and steel beam (and) basically make it work as one unit rather than two separate units.”
Detours to Maple City Road and Lake Leelanau Drive should be unnecessary as the road commission plans to set up traffi c control signals over the Victoria Creek bridge while work is being done. Brown said there is a possibility that the signals will be taken down to allow free-flow traffic on evenings and weekends.
Also at the Tuesday meeting, the road commission authorized Chairman Bob Joyce to sign two Public Act 51 certification maps. According to the Michigan Department of Transportation website, the act “establishes jurisdictional road networks, sets priorities for the use of transportation revenues, and allows bonded indebtedness for transportation improvements.”
Following up on discussion at the previous meeting, road commission Manager Brendan Mullane informed the road commissioners that a new work rule clarifying a “gray area in the contract about how and when drivers need to be available for winter maintenance, especially on weekends” has been drafted and sent to the Teamsters for review as a courtesy.
Per last meeting’s discussion, the work rule is addressing road commission employees not showing up to work or responding to their supervisor’s phone calls to help clear the roads in the wake of snowstorms.
Mullane and Chairman Joyce will also attend the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners executive session on March 12 to ask the commissioners to approve the road maintenance millage renewal, which will be on the ballot in the Aug. 6 elections.
