2nd Avenue Bridge Project

ALEPENA, Mich. [WBKB] — It’s been 30 years since the 2nd Avenue Bridge has undergone any rehabilitation work, but that’s about to change this October.

The $2.6 million project is slated to begin on October 16th of this year.

According to City Engineer Rich Sullenger the project will be an overall rehabilitation of the bridge.

A significant amount of concrete repair, steel repair and replacement, painting, and electrical work will be done on the bridge over the course of several months.

Sullenger said the bridge is showing clear signs of aging and is excited for the repairs to begin.

While the cost of the repair work is in the $2 million range the City of Alpena will only be paying 5 percent.

Sullenger said that this is due to the city submitting a Critical Bridge Application, which in turn provides federal funds for the project.

“We put in a Critical Bridge Application. The city is only paying 5 percent of the construction cost, state’s paying five, the federal government is paying 90 percent of those construction costs. Plus we have to pay for our design engineering, construction engineering, etc.”

While the work on the bridge may be extensive, Sullenger says that the goal is to keep traffic flowing for the majority of the project, but there will be a period where the bridge is closed to all traffic.

“There may be some intermittent lane closures as their bringing some equipment in, bringing materials in, etc. But, we’re really gearing towards a six–week window for closure, a five to six week window for closure of 2nd Avenue itself. That would be May 1st till, I believe June 8th. Reason being is they have to pull the entire grated deck off from the bridge to be able to get underneath there to sand blast and paint the structural steel. And also replace some steel components that are pretty well rusted.”

If you’re interested in receiving email updates about the project, you can sign up on the City of Alpena website, at www.alpena.mi.u.s.