By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Beginning July 6, three road bridges in the village will be under construction for up to six weeks. The bridge on Mill Street will remain open and Ball street will close for a few days, but the bridge at South Street will be closed for up to six weeks.
The construction is part of a grant with the Michigan Department of Transportation, and was approved at the Feb. 28 meeting by the village council.
“It’s preventative maintenance that needs to happen on all three bridges,” said village manager Ryan Madis.
The village will pay 5 percent of costs, and the state will pay the other 95 percent. The cost to the village will be around $12,900, which was already budgeted for.
“The Ball Street bridge is a 2 or 3 day project, and the Mill Street bridge is a less-than-a-week project, they’re both very minor, and both can maintain normal traffic while being worked on,” said Madis. “The South Street bridge, however, is the timber frame bridge, so you can’t drive on half of it while they’re working on the other half because it’s very unsafe. So that will require a full closure of South Street up to six weeks.”
During the regular meeting on Monday night, concerns were brought up to the village council about the closure of South Street at the bridge, both for businesses in downtown Ortonville and for the Brandon Township Public Library.
“Matt Jenkins has started the discussion for how these will impact our downtown businesses and residents and how to creatively work around these issues,” said Madis. “It impacts some of our neighbors as well, the library will be close to the South Street construction.
Currently, there is no way to turn left onto South Street from M-15, which would impact anyone going to the library. Madis said he is discussing with MDOT about ways to allow access to South Street for southbound M-15 traffic.