At a monthly work session this past Wednesday morning, St. Joseph County Road Commission (SJCRC) staff brought board members up to speed on the status of several pending projects, including a statewide “bridge bundling” project that will see a bridge replaced on Nottawa Road. Board members also addressed a few standard procedural items for the beginning of the new year, continuing a series of several such items addressed at a board meeting on January 6.
Approved at Wednesday’s work session was a resolution in support of SJCRC board members signing on to a Support and Commitment statement with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). The statement is meant to signify to MDOT that SJCRC will commit to long-term maintenance on the Nottawa Road bridge once MDOT replaces the span.
MDOT has been considering the span replacement as part of a larger “bridge bundling” project. This is an experimental, new program in which MDOT will be seeking cost savings and other efficiencies by replacing 20 bridges around the state over a three-year period, under the same contract, and with the same construction firm.
The state agency first began considering the bundling project two or three years ago, SJCRC Engineer Garrett Myland said. Initially, St. Joseph County was not up for consideration under the pilot project. However, after some other counties were unable to provide required documentation in time, MDOT personnel approached Myland. Once he was able to provide the necessary documentation, St. Joseph County became eligible.
Although the abutments and other support features will not be replaced on Nottawa Road, the project will involve installing an entirely new span, deck, and roadway. MDOT will pay for the design and installation of the new span, and the removal of the old one. As a result, the county receives “essentially a free superstructure,” Myland said. “We just have to agree to take care of the bridge. It’s definitely worth it for us.”
Staff Lining Up 2021 Seasonal Projects
SJCRC Managing Director John Lindsey said he and Myland are working with the townships around the county to finalize projects under the Allocation Fund, under which the townships share half the cost of local road work. As of Wednesday, Lindsey said SJCRC has $1,986,147 worth of signed contracts with the townships, with a few more negotiations to be finalized. Roughly $600,000 of that total is going toward work on local roads, while the remaining roughly $500,000 will go toward the primary road network.
Myland said several major projects are lined up for 2021 and the coming years. A bridge on Klinger Lake Road is set for replacement in the fall, and SJCRC has received a grant to rehabilitate a bridge on Wattles Road in 2022. The agency is awaiting a full proposal for the design of planned repairs to the Langley Covered Bridge scheduled for 2023.
A proposed widening project on Lutz Road did not receive a grant award from MDOT’s Transportation Economic Development Fund (TEDF) this year, which means that Myland had approached another grantor to ask for an extension. The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) has committed funds to the project, but the TEDF dollars are also needed to make the project work. Out of 37 applicants, TEDF administrators chose 8 awardees, ranking the SJCRC project at 11th place. Because of that ranking, Myland believes the agency has a good chance of receiving the award if it reapplies next year, so he is awaiting a word on whether HSIP administrators will permit an extension.
Meanwhile, Lindsey said this time of year is typically spent lining up work in order to prepare for the arrival of the warmer seasons. SJCRC crews, in the meantime, work on things like fleet maintenance issues, addressing emergency repairs, and attending to winter weather.
The agency budgets $1.1 million to cover snow events. Lindsey said that although there had only been seven inches of snowfall events, the cost of addressing light snow that can make the road slippery costs roughly the same $32,000 per day that several inches of accumulation costs, because whether plowing or just salting, trucks must cover the same area.
Road Section to Return to Gravel
Board members also voted to approve returning a section of Walterspaugh Road in Nottawa Township from hard surface to dirt. Lindsey said the section, just under half a mile in length between Cupp and Butler Roads, has deteriorated to the point that it is eligible for “failed road” status, which means it must either be repaved or reverted to a gravel surface.
Once a road becomes eligible for that status, SJCRC must decide which course of action to take. Lindsey said the local township can elect to cover or share the cost of repaving the hard surface. In this case, Lindsey said it appeared Nottawa Township would not elect to replace the hard pavement. Thus, he said, he would instruct crews to return the road to gravel.
Since there are no houses on the section and the road hosts a very low traffic volume, Lindsey said he “questioned why it was ever hard surface in the first place.” He did note there is a hill in that section and said the county will repave a 300-foot section where the hill is despite the intent to revert the rest to gravel. The board’s approval makes the failed road designation official and allows the Lindsey to proceed with addressing the work.
Other SJCRC Business
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, board members voted to provide the agency’s approval for its vote on a new candidate to fill an open seat on the Board of Directors of the County Road Association of Michigan (CRA). That organization is a statewide trade and advocacy group for agencies like SJCRC and other county road commissions.
SJCRC members chose to support candidate Joanna Johnson of the Kalamazoo County Road Commission over another candidate from Calhoun County. SJCRC member Vince Mifsud said Jonson “does her homework, is to the point,” and is “one person for sure taking her job seriously.
SJCRC Vice President Eric Shafer suggested that because the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners recently took over for its road commission, the experience of the candidate from there could be instructional. However, at the time SJCRC members took their vote in Johnson’s favor, Shafter voted to support her as well.
Other items approved on Wednesday included SJCRC’s annual list of depositories for 2021, which SJCRC Director of Administration and Human Resources Julie Mayieurs said is the same as the 2020 list minus a few institutions the agency was not actively using.
The board passed a vote to rescind and replace a previously approved resolution to abandon a short section of Union Street in Mott Township. The replacement resolution includes a corrected figure for the length of the abandoned section.
New SJCRC board member Jack Coleman joined Mifsud in proposing a “perpetual plaque” program which would recognize persons who contribute to road projects and improvements from outside the agency. Coleman and Mifsud received input from other board members on the idea, which Shafer said will carry over to the next few meetings for discussion and refinement.
Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
