County Commission approves emergency repairs to Grosse Ile Bridge
Published on February 05, 2021
Wayne County Commissioners today unanimously approved a $9.33 million contract to provide emergency repairs to six support piers under the Grosse Ile Parkway Bridge, allowing the free 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."
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, Wisc. A date and time for that meeting will be announced soon. County public works officials say the repairs should add 20-30 years of life to the 1930s-era bridge, one of two bridges serving the island.
"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," director 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."
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 substantial repairs to its superstructure. That work was about 90 percent complete at the time of last spring's closing, county officials said.
The contract, not to exceed $9,334,055, will be financed through the county road budget.
In addition to the repair work, core borings will also be conducted at each pier once construction is completed and grout has hardened.
Grosse Ile Supervisor James Budny thanked Watts, Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans, Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell and Commissioner Palamara for their efforts in providing securing the emergency repairs.
County Commission approves emergency repairs to Grosse Ile Bridge(PDF, 130KB)