Still Snow, But Leelanau Road And Bridge Repairs Coming Soon

Leelanau County Road Commission crew members plow 1,300 total lane miles each times it snows – the equivalent to driving a plow from Suttons Bay to Daytona Beach – but now these crews are gearing up to start their preliminary project list for 2020 road maintenance and construction.

First up this spring: 40 miles of crack sealing, sealcoating and fog sealing on both primary and secondary roads. “This year we will be focused on the west side of Lake Leelanau, working in Solon, Kasson, Centerville and Leland townships,” says Road Commission Managing Director Justin Kelenske.

Crews are shooting for mid-May to begin the repairs, or as soon as the road surface is reliably 50 degrees. Kelenske notes that the road commission recently switched to a slag material rather than a crushed limestone material for sealcoating. “It tremendously reduces the dust from that process and gets better traction in the wintertime,” Kelenske says.

In addition to the above regular maintenance, the following country roads will be repaved or repaired, with both contract crews and regular road commission employees completing the work:

Town Line Road (between M-22 and County Road 651), aiming for the second week in June.

County Road 669 north of M-22. Here, the work will be replacing the undersized and dated culvert under 669 (Shalda Creek Crossing) and reconstructing 1000 feet of the roadway. The new three sided concrete structure at Shalda Creek will be classified as a bridge. Bid letting for the project is set for April.

County Road 633 from County Road 629 to M-22, likely in August.

There is also a Township 50/50 Project underway, with the Leelanau County Road Commission working with Kasson Township under a cost-share agreement. A complete road reconstruction with new culverts is planned for East Alpine Road in late June, with Kasson Center Road to follow in July. Both roads will be closed to through traffic at times.

Kelenske reports that now that the major shoreline restoration project at South Shore Drive and Lee Point Road is complete, the road commission is monitoring erosion throughout the county. “We have another spot we are keeping our eye on, on County Road 640 north of Northport, and we will assess next steps if the south winds continue to beat that shoreline,” he says.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) plans to start the $1.7 million project at the M-204 bridge over the Lake Leelanau Narrows on March 30 and continue work through July. The agency lists July 18 as the official completion date, however MDOT Traverse City Transportation Service Center Manager Rick Liptak says the department hopes to wrap up the project by July 1.

The project calls for replacing the bridge decking and widening the bridge, allowing for pedestrian pathways to be installed on both sides of the bridge. Work will also include improving the bridge approaches, adding new railings, and reconstructing the historic pedestrian railings. The existing Lake Leelanau Narrows bridge was built by the Michigan State Highway Department in 1939, as a Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works project to improve the nation’s infrastructure and to put those unemployed by the Depression back to work. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

A temporary traffic signal at the bridge will allow one direction of traffic to cross at a time, with a sensor to detect approaching traffic. “This will reduce wait times during low traffic volume times, like at night,” says Liptak. “Pedestrians will not be able to cross the bridge in the first stage. Once we move to the second stage the pedestrian area on one side will be useable.”

Other than The Narrows bridge project, there is no other construction planned for Leelanau’s state-owned roads (the “M” roads – M-22, M-72 and M-204). “We have just a little cleanup work on the paving projects that were done last year on M-204,” says Liptak.