LANSING, Mich. — A project by the Michigan Department of Transportation to fix 20 Michigan bridges just started with the Herbison Road Bridge near Wacousta in Clinton County and the East Washington Street Bridge in the city of Jackson.
A total of 19 bridges are a part of the $25 million program and one more will be added by the end of the year.
“We have got about 1,000 bridges in the state that are in what we call serious or critical condition. So, this is only knocking out a few of those, but every bit helps,” said Matt Chynoweth, the chief bridge engineer at MDOT and the director of the Bureau of Bridges and Structures.
While there are around 11,500 bridges in Michigan, the state is responsible for around 4,500. This is the first time they are working on a project to fix locally owned bridges.
According to Chynoweth, this is an effort to see if money can be saved when bundling bridges and fixing multiple at once.
“We wanted to start on a smaller group of bridges first and then phase two of the program, which the legislature funded last year is $196 million that's going to be spent over the next three years so much bigger, and it'll be spent over three years,” Chynoweth said.
The construction of each bridge will last 60 to 90 days, while all of them are supposed to be done by November. The progress can be tracked on the MDOT website.
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