One of the St. Joseph County Road Commission’s (SJCRC) leading staff recently received the top award in the state for a rural road engineer. At a regular SJCRC meeting Wednesday morning, board members learned that Assistant Director and Engineer Garrett Myland received the “Rural Engineer of the Year” award from the County Road Association of Michigan (CRA). An award also goes to the “Urban Engineer of the Year,” but for the “Rural” title, Myland won over engineers in similar positions all around the state.

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.

A short stretch of Lutz Road heading south from Three Rivers may be up for reconstruction soon. Garrett Myland, Assistant Manager and Engineer for the St. Joseph County Road Commission (SJCRC), said in a report Wednesday he is pursuing a longer-term project to have Lutz Road rebuilt in its entirety from Highway M-86 all the way to U.S.-12. Working toward that larger goal, Myland is seeking a handful of grants to help rebuild the road’s first two miles from M-86 south to Fairchild Road in 2021.

Following an alignment of several funding sources recently, St. Joseph County Road Commission (SJCRC) staff said the Langley Covered bridge will receive an extensive overhaul in 2023 at a board meeting Tuesday. Funding from the state legislature and the Southwest Region Bridge Council of Michigan (SWBC) will fund a significant portion of the work. SJCRC will provide some of its own funds and Managing Director John Lindsey said he hopes the County Commission will close a remaining gap.