Wayne County Approves Emergency Repairs To Grosse Ile Bridge

GROSSE ILE, MI — About $9.3 million in repairs to the Grosse Ile Bridge approved by Wayne County Commissioners Thursday should add 20-30 years of life to the 1930s-era bridge, officials said recently.

Commissioners on Thursday approved a $9.33 million contract to provide emergency repairs to six support piers under the Grosse Ile Parkway Bridge, allowing the bridge to reopen by early fall.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans and Public Services Director Beverly Watts for their high priority of getting fixed quickly and properly,” Commissioner Joseph Palamara (D-Grosse Ile Township) said. “To say the closure of this bridge has been a disaster is an understatement. In reality, it has been quite brutal for all the people and therefore, we are extremely with the action taken today very grateful and looking forward to getting the work done and traffic moving again.”

The bridge, which spans the Trenton channel, has been closed since May, when it was discovered the underlying piers had suffered substantial deterioration. At the time, the 1930s-era bridge was undergoing repairs to its superstructure. That work was about 90 percent complete at the time of last spring’s closing, county officials said.

A virtual town hall on the project is scheduled for early March, featuring township and county officials, along with representatives of the contractor, J.F. Brennan Co., Inc. of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The contract approved by commissioners and set to not exceed $9,334,055, will be financed through the county road budget, according to officials.

“We did not want to cause any hardship to the residents of Grosse Ile but quite frankly this bridge has been on life support for some time,” Wayne County Public Services Director Beverly Watts said. “We moved up the inspection of this bridge because safety was the No. 1 focus for our residents. I applaud all of the engineers working and planning to get this bridge back for its residents as our goal is to open the bridge by Oct. 1.”

In addition to the repair work, core borings will also be conducted at each pier once construction is completed and grout has hardened, officials said.