The Washtenaw County Road Commission announced on August 29, 2007 that the Seven Mile Road Bridge, between Currie Road and Chubb Road in Sections 2 and 11 of Salem Township, will reopen before the Labor Day weekend.
On August 28, a Road Commission Operations crew completed the installation of a new 40-foot culvert and backfilling to replace the old short-span bridge on Seven Mile Road. The paving contractor hired by the Road Commission placed the asphalt surface on the morning of Thursday, August 30, and the Road Commission has reopened the Seven Mile Road to the traveling public later that afternoon.
On July 3, 2007, the Road Commission closed the Seven Mile Road
Short-Span Bridge over the Johnson Creek Tributary upon the
completion of a routine inspection, which takes place every two
years. The old short-span bridge was estimated to be about 50 to
60 years old, and based on a 1999 traffic count; approximately
4,000 vehicles cross over the Seven Mile Road Bridge daily.
The biennial inspection, conducted on June 21, 2007, by the Road Commission’s hired consultant Scott Civil Engineering, revealed severe deterioration and structural failure of several steel beams and both abutments. The bridge inspector recommended that the Road Commission impose an immediate closure of the structure for the safety of the motoring public. Over the past decade, other inspections conducted on the Seven Mile Road structure resulted in weight limit reductions. After an inspection in 2000, the structure was reduced from a "no posting status" to 36 tons; in 2005, following another inspection, the bridge was reduced from 36 tons to a 12-ton weight limit.
Even though the Road Commission is currently coping with
ongoing financial limitations, recognizing the importance of
reopening this bridge to motoring public, at a Working Session on
July 30, 2007, the Washtenaw County Board of Road Commissioners
agreed to allocate a “not-to-exceed” amount of $800,000 from
reserve discretionary funds to replace as many of the seven
recently closed bridges as soon as possible, including the Seven
Mile Road Bridge. The bridge funding was officially approved by
the Board with the agency’s second quarter budget adjustments on
August 7. Grant funding through the Local Bridge Program cannot be
used to pay for the replacement of any bridge structure under a
span of 20 feet.
The Seven Mile Road Bridge is one of five (5) closed short-span bridges and/or culverts that are scheduled to be replaced by Operations crews before the end of this year. Road Commission crews are scheduled to replace the Willow Road culvert in Saline Township, which was closed on July 18, 2007. Work is expected to begin on this culvert replacement immediately after the Labor Day weekend.
For more information and continual updates on these bridge replacement projects, visit the Road Commission website at www.wcroads.org.
Contacts
To obtain additional information on these bridge closures and replacements, contact Kelly Jones, Bridge Engineer, at (734) 327-6647, or via email at jonesk@wcroads.org.
For questions or further information on this press release, please contact Val Cooper, Public Information Officer, Washtenaw County Road Commission, at (734) 327-6675, or via email at cooperv@wcroads.org.