Garbage trucks no longer able to cross the bridge

By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
Residents of a peninsula on the Stringy Lakes were surprised earlier this month when a sign went up reducing to nine tons the load limit of the bridge. That bridge is the only access to their homes on the dead-end of Maloney St. in Oxford Township.
The 24-foot bridge that separates Clear Lake from Long Lake has deteriorated faster than expected in recent years. A Road Commission for Oakland County bridge consultant examined the bridge in July as part of a normal inspection schedule and a weight analysis was performed, leading to the recommended load reduction. The RCOC Board of Commissioners approved the weight reduction Sept. 9.
The road commission plans to rebuild the bridge for $2 million in 2022 using road commission funds. In the meantime, the load reduction means regular-size garbage trucks will no longer be able to cross the bridge, so residents will have to haul their own trash across to a designated turnaround area on the other side.
“It’s okay in the fall,” said resident Paul Beebe. “Come snow, I don’t want to drag my trash cans across the bridge – and I’m the closest house! We barely get plow service or salt service, and you’re expecting people to move their trash cans down across the bridge? The problem is, we have a bunch of people in their 70s down here, and for them to move their trashcans an eighth of a mile down the road in the snow when we don’t get plow service? I mean, somebody’s going to fall down, break a hip, somebody’s going to have a heart attack. Whose responsibility is it then? I mean, this makes no sense whatsoever.”
Three trash companies service the peninsula. It doesn’t make economic sense for them to send a smaller truck for only three or four houses. And since the township doesn’t have a single trash hauler, there isn’t much the township can do as far as ordering the companies to provide smaller trucks to service the area.
“The people in the community do not want a single hauler,” said Township Supervisor Jack Curtis. In 2019, Township Trustee Margaret Payne organized a petition to put a single trash hauler resolution on the ballot. The petition was unsuccessful. “No one came and signed it. No one wants it.”
Curtis said the township is helping the residents by communicating with the road commission and garbage companies, but ultimately, it is a road commission issue, since the road commission owns the bridge, not the township. “It’s not a township issue, it’s a township residents’ issue, so I am involved to try to make it easier for residents.” He said they are working on a resolution, but it takes time to go through all the proper municipal channels and procedures.
“It is an inconvenience,” said Craig Bryson, public information officer for RCOC. “But you can’t rebuild a bridge without closing it for a while. In the meantime, we don’t want to take any safety risks. And the reality is, 15 homes are getting a $2 million bridge for free.”
The previous weight limit had been 19 tons for single vehicles, 25 tons for or 42 tons, depending on the axles. Now it is nine tons for all vehicles. In August, the road commission performed maintenance work on both of the bridge’s approaches to minimize impact of regular passenger vehicles.
The load reduction also technically prohibits regular use of school buses and emergency vehicles. However, no school buses will be effected because no bus route crosses the bridge anyway, according to Ann Weeden, transportation director for Oxford Community Schools. Students who live on the peninsula and ride the bus are picked up from the intersection of Maloney Ave. and Lakesview Blvd.
The road commission and Oxford Fire Chief Pete Scholz clarified that in an emergency, rescue vehicles can and will cross the bridge. The bridge just cannot handle such heavy, repetitive loads on a regular basis.
Due to winter construction regulations, the project timeline cannot be moved up any sooner. Utility relocation is scheduled for early next year, tree removal in March, construction starts in early spring and project completion next fall. A temporary, one-lane bridge will be in place for residents during construction.
Built in 1973, the bridge replaced an older bridge that was declared unsafe in 1971 when a garbage truck broke through the decking, as reported in The Leader June 28, 1973.