KENT COUNTY, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) officially opened the 100th Street bridge over US-131 in Byron Township Monday afternoon. The new bridge was a $10 million project, and the bridge is wider, and taller than the previous one.
The previous bridge was built in 1957, and was struck many times by trucks with too high of loads. According to MDOT, in 2018, trucks struck the overpass 13 times between January and May.
"If you think about the 1950s," said Tanya Pawlukiewicz, construction engineer with MDOT, "where the world was, and where we are now in relation to Amazon. How many Amazon packages do you get delivered to your house? They have to get there somehow, and its usually onto a truck. Those trucks have gotten bigger, they’ve gotten taller cause they need to handle a lot larger loads. So, our bridges need to get a little taller."
The new overpass now has a 16 feet and three inches clearance. That makes it more than two feet taller than before.
The bridge was rebuilt from Division Avenue to around 1,000 feet west of U.S.-131. The new construction features two through lanes and a turning lane in each direction, and a 14-foot wide pedestrian path. Traffic signals were added at both intersections at the ends of the bridge, connecting it to the ramps on and off US-131.
"This is a multi-model project," said Paul Ajegba, MDOT's Director. "You have sidewalk and bike path, and that’s the key. When we do a project like this, we try to make it better for all the users, not just motorists."
Construction and demolition for the project began in March, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Michigan. Pawlukiewicz said at the beginning, traffic was decreased due to stay-at-home orders, so they were able to increase closures to work on the project. However, the pandemic had an impact on the project and its workers.
"I think all of our lives have been uprooted as far as COVID," said Pawlukiewicz. "Everybody out here is a parent, is a sibling, has children that have school going back into session. Then you throw into the fact you need to construct a nearly $10 million bridge, it makes it more challenging."
Ajegba called Monday's opening a "bittersweet moment," acknowledging the challenges of the project during a pandemic.
"Through all that, the entire team persevered to get the job done," said Ajegba. "Because we realize how important this bridge is to the community, to the businesses here, and getting it done so early despite the odds is a good thing."
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