Michigan gets $73M from feds to rebuild 85-year-old moveable Bay City bridge

Washington ― The federal government is providing Michigan with a $73 million grant toward rebuilding the moveable Lafayette Avenue Bridge over the Saginaw River in Bay City that is in such bad shape it closed 20 times for repairs last year, officials said.

The $73 million award by the Federal Highway Administration will cover the bulk of the $91.25 million rebuild project through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bridge Investment Program, which was set up as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted in 2021.

Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt, who lives in Troy, said he's taken his family over the Lafayette Avenue Bridge a number of times.

"We vacation and drive through Bay City quite a bit, and I have spent a lot of time up there, so it's really exciting when we get to show how $73 billion of our bridge funds are going to replace a bridge that was built in 1938 as part of the New Deal," Bhatt said.

"That was a pretty transformative infrastructure program for the United States, and now President Biden is leading a new renaissance."

The Federal Highway Administration announced the funding Thursday as part of a $300 million allocation from the competitive Bridge Investment Program in nine small and medium-size bridge projects in eight states and the District of Columbia. The program is intended to put $12.5 billion toward rebuild and repairing bridges around the country over five years.

The two-year-long project in Bay City will reconstruct the moveable bascule bridge and include a shared-use bicycle and pedestrian pathway along the new span. The Michigan Department of Transportation will fund the balance of the project.

The $75 million award is Michigan's second largest road and bridge grant the state has received under the bipartisan infrastructure law after the $104.6 million grant announced last year for Interstate 375 in Detroit. FHWA said the span rated in poor condition and has seen increasing operational problems.

"Just last year, the bridge closed 20 separate times for repair. The bridge was dangerous, and so it must be fixed," Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist told reporters on a call.

MDOT confirmed that figure is "unfortunately" true, with at least 20 unexpected mechanical and electrical failures that affected traffic last year.

"The bascule bridges have heavy mechanical expectations and, while even new bridges are subject to unexpected failures to open and close on demand, this structure is 85 years old and far past its life expectancy," MDOT spokeswoman Jocelyn Garza said.

The bridge originally opened in 1938 and features two bascule piers that support a 184-foot-long bascule span. The bridge's last major rehabilitation was in 1987 to replace the superstructure, according to the FHWA.

MDOT has planned to replace the span for years but delayed the project in 2019 due to an increase in estimated costs, MLive reported. The bridge carries an average 16,000 vehicles a day and state Routes M-13 and M-84 over the main channel of the Saginaw River.

Garza noted that Bay City has four bascule bridges along the busy water corridor, two that are owned by MDOT and two owned by the city. During construction of the Lafayette Street bridge, MDOT will detour traffic to the other MDOT-owned structure, M-25, or otherwise known as the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

"This grant will cover the majority of the costs for this structure, which is huge, as it allows us to leverage the funding we would have had to commit to this project to other bridge needs around the state," Garza said. "I don’t think there are words to even convey how fortunate we feel to have secured this grant."

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, called the project long overdue. She noted the current bridge cost just $623,000 to build over 11 months in 1938. At the time, it received an American Institute of Field Construction award for the best movable bridge, she said.

"Well, 85 years later, it's definitely showing its age, that's for sure. Anybody who lives in the Bay City area knows that it's closed a lot for repairs, sometimes for months at a time," she said. "This has real effects on people and our businesses. .... I've heard stories of emergency vehicles not being able to get to where they need to go, so it becomes very much a life saving situation."

White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu said the span provides the only vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle access from the more populous east side of Bay City to Middle Ground Island but has reached the end of its service life.

"That's why we're making investments in now to keep this bridge standing and to keep communities connected," Landrieu said.

Landrieu added that the Biden administration has so far announced over $4.4 billion to rebuild Michigan roads, bridges, airports and ports, including $2.8 billion in highway formula funding and $243 million in formula funding for bridges alone.

mburke@detroitnews.com