OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The Ottawa County Road Commission enforced a weight limit of five tons on the Hayes Street bridge between 16th Avenue and 12th Avenue.
Brandt Homik, road engineer at the Ottawa County Road Commission, said, “If something is overloaded — something goes over a bridge that's in shape like this — the bridge may collapse.”
The weight limit has been set because structural deterioration at the bridge was recently discovered.
Homik says there is a lot of risk for vehicles over five tons driving on the bridge. “We knew that this bridge and this structure was deteriorating to a point where we needed to replace it,” Homik said.
Vehicles over the weight limit now have to find an alternate route if they're driving through Hayes Street.
The deterioration of the bridge, Homik says, is caused by “the freezing and the thawing for the seasonal changes in temperatures in the state that makes the cracks grow larger.”
So, the bridge went from sustaining 25 tons to 5 tons. However, this isn't new.
“Most of the bridges throughout the state are in poor condition,” Homik said.
On MDOT's map of Michigan bridge conditions, green reflects good ratings, yellow reflects fair, and red reflects poor.
“Funding for bridges is hard to come by because it costs a lot to reconstruct the bridge,” Homik said.
However, the Hayes Street bridge is getting a full reconstruction. The new bridge won't have weight restrictions. The good news is this weight limit won't have an impact on everyday vehicles.
“We hope people can bear with us here, and eventually we'll have a brand-new bridge in place that won't be affected with weight restrictions,” Homik said.
Homik says the bridge will be completed by the summer of 2025, with construction beginning in May.
For more information on Michigan bridges and structures, click here.
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