A February 18, 2015 memo from South Haven City Engineer Larry Halberstadt to the community's City Manager reported that "The bridge over the Black River on Blue Star Highway is currently considered to be 'structurally deficient." Halberstadt went on to tell Brian Dissette, "This means that the deck, superstructure, or substructure is considered to be in 'poor' condition on the National Bridge inventory rating scale." Now, something is going to be done about that.
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has issued a notice today that the Blue Star Highway bridge over the Black River will undergo construction beginning next Monday, October 3, 2016. It is expected to remain closed to all traffic until the end of June next year. That's a nine-month shutdown that will cause many a headache for businesses and residents along that route, as well as creating issues for several major school buildings nearby.
MDOT is replacing the bridge beams and deck in a $3.3-million project that will also include reinforcing the river bottom to prevent erosion at the base of piers and abutments holding the bridge up. Detour signs will be posted to re-direct traffic around the construction zone.
At the time of his memo to Dissette, Engineer Halberstadt noted that "a bridge may also be classified as structurally deficient if the load carrying capacity is significantly below current design standards or if a waterway below frequently overtops the bridge during floods."
The engineer says that Blue Star Highway is currently under the jurisdiction of the Van Buren County Road Commission, however prior to creation of the commission the road was maintained by the MDOT as US-31. The state promised at the time of turnover to the road commission that they would complete the replacement of the bridge superstructure.
Halberstadt noted a year and a half ago that the structure "has continued to deteriorate and this has resulted in load limits being placed on the structure." At that time, MDOT's Coloma Service Center team had anticipated reconstruction beginning in February of 2016 and completion by this past Memorial Day. Clearly that did not happen, but now it is about to.
Halberstadt's note to Dissette also indicated that MDOT's work would also include rehabilitation of the piers and abutments, "including installation of scour protection measures."
The bridge closure will also impact the Kal-Haven Trail which will also be detoured onto a temporary trail throughout the construction process according to MDOT.
If you know business owners and residents who routinely travel the Blue Star Highway route over the Black River near South Haven, you might want to share this information with them so they don't get caught in a bind come Monday morning.
