Ortonville- Construction is a sign of spring and village residents traveling in the Ball Street Bridge area may get a glimpse of work being done this week.
Trojan Development Company of Oxford will begin cutting trees as they prepare to build a new bridge.
‘They will start preparing the site, moving snow, and moving equipment in,? said Village Manager John Lyons. ‘Actual work on the bridge starts March 3.?
Trojan Development Company was the low bidder last fall on replacement of the bridge. They will construct the bridge at a cost of $534,133.64. Including engineering, the total cost of the project is $580,000, with 95 percent of that funded through Critical Bridge Funding, a federal highway administration grant. The village must pay 5 percent, about $28,000.
The bridge, which is more than 50-years-old, was deemed critical and in need of replacement in 2009 by state inspectors.
Village officials planned to have the construction done last year, but had to rebid the project after it was discovered last spring that design plans had the new bridge being built over an artisan well. The Michigan Department of Transportation, which funds construction, would not approve a design plan by Rowe Engineering and Geo-Tech Services in which the bridge was to be built on pylons 85 feet down through the artisan well.
Ball Street will be closed March 3 between James and Cedar streets and is expected to reopen to traffic in May. There will then be a 12-week settling period, and construction on the bridge is set for completion in November.
‘There is not a lot of heavy traffic, but the bridge was weathered,? said Lyons. ‘We are happy to finally get it done.?