It will likely take six or more months to reopen Beitner Road after its bridge over the Boardman River collapsed Tuesday. At a press conference Wednesday, Grand Traverse County Road Commission (GTCRC) Manager Dan Watkins said Cass Road will become the default bypass for the summer – with possible temporary traffic signals going in on both ends of Hartman Road.
Meanwhile, South Airport Road – which Watkins said at one point faced a similar risk of collapse by Logan’s Landing – could reopen within a week. The Ticker has the latest on those and other flooding updates, from a major downtown sinkhole to a state emergency declaration to potential environmental impacts.
Watkins said he was at the scene of the Beitner bridge examining a sinkhole when the guardrails started making odd noises, with the structure then suddenly giving away (pictured). GTCRC immediately shut down the Beitner corridor, with no one fortunately hurt. Beitner was already set to have its bridge replaced, but work wasn’t planned to begin until 2027. Watkins said GTCRC is now working to accelerate the final design so work can begin as soon as possible. He estimates the bridge will take at least six months to repair – meaning traffic will be significantly disrupted across the peak summer months, something GTCRC had tried to avoid.
Watkins said GTCRC is working with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) on solutions that could include installing temporary lights on both ends of Hartman – on US-31 and Cass -– to control traffic until Beitner is restored. MDOT North Region Communications Specialist James Lake confirmed the state is talking to GTCRC but will “need to look at a design…before we can give final approval.” MDOT is still moving ahead with its Interlochen/US-31 project as planned, Lake said. Cass Road was set to be reconstructed this year between South Airport and the Cass bridge, but that project will now likely be delayed, Watkins said.
Watkins said there was a “real chance” South Airport Road could also have been lost at its Boardman crossing by Logan’s Landing Tuesday night. However, crews were able to successfully deploy sandbags and “save” the road, he said. South Airport, which sees roughly 40,000 cars a day in that stretch, could reopen within a week provided the structure is stable. Watkins said several engineers are evaluating the earth underneath, which is highly saturated and still has the potential to shift the road. However, for now South Airport appears to be “holding together,” Watkins said. Other local road closures included Sawyer Road, Marsh Road, Bush Road, Rahe Road, and Hannah Road, with pockets of flooding scattered elsewhere throughout the county.
Boardman flooding also significantly impacted downtown Traverse City. FishPass continued to take on more water, though City Manager Benjamin Marentette said that experts on the engineering and design team had evaluated the site and found “everything is intact. We’re hopeful that remains the case.” Those same experts advised that if the city hadn’t replaced the deteriorating Union Street Dam with FishPass, “we would have likely seen catastrophic circumstances in downtown Traverse City” from the flooding this week, Marentette said.
In the 100 block alley of Front Street, a massive sinkhole opened up near the river retaining wall, swallowing a section of a sidewalk and a light pole. City Streets Division Superintendent Chris Weber said crews worked with Traverse City Light & Power to disconnect the power to the light pole and removed parking signs and a pay station. The retaining wall has long been an issue; the Boardman has repeatedly scoured out the soil underneath the wall footing, with sinkholes occurring in the alley for years. In this case, Weber says the wall is currently stable and the water “is doing our work” by excavating down to the bottom. Crews then plan to use a combination of rock, fabric/membrane, and concrete to fill the hole. Weber also helped pulled trees out of the downtown fish weir and said that while flooding was prominent along the river, levels were also receding Wednesday.
City Director of Municipal Utilities Art Krueger said the city’s pipes and wastewater treatment plant have continued to perform “really well,” with no issues except for one on Boardman Lake. Because the lake is so high, the level in the UV channel – which provides a final “zap” to the treated water as it exits the plant – has also been raised, meaning a portion of the outgoing flow isn’t receiving the final UV light. Krueger said the state has been notified and staff are repeatedly sampling to ensure there are no bacterial issues with water entering the lake. “We haven’t had any high hits,” he says, adding that UV system upgrades are part of several major repairs planned soon at the plant.
Several closures occurred Wednesday due to flooding issues, ranging from Father Fred to Meals on Wheels to Senior Center programming to trail closures around Medalie Park and the Natural Education Reserve. Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) and other districts also closed Wednesday at the county’s request due to the unknown condition of numerous back roads, in addition to main arteries being down. TCAPS has an early release day today (Thursday) but said it planned to be open, though delays were expected at both morning pick-up and afternoon drop-off. Parents can use the MyRide K-12 app to monitor their students’ transportation status, with traffic impacts and new bus routes expected in some areas.
In addition to a county-declared state of emergency, Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended a state-declared state of emergency to 32 counties Wednesday including Grand Traverse. The declaration allows the state to “deploy additional resources to help local officials and first responders protect Michiganders and their property,” Whitmer said. More rain is in the forecast through Thursday evening, with 0.25-0.75 inches likely across much of northern Michigan.
Once the immediate flooding danger has passed, the next focus will be on cleanup. Heather Smith of The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay notes that part of the challenge is that rivers have a floodplain where water naturally flows during heavy rain or snowmelt events. However, humans are often building up to and throughout those floodplains – typically with roads, buildings, and parking lots that create runoff and thus faster-rising floods. “When we interrupt those natural systems, it reduces the storage and filtration capacity of the floodplain,” she says.
A tremendous amount of debris has also now entered the Boardman watershed, she notes. From a collapsed bridge – with big slabs of asphalt and potential toxic materials like coal tar – to chemicals and sewage to trash, plastic, lawn furniture, gas cans, and other detritus that gets swept away from properties, the widespread diffuse flooding means “you can’t track down who’s responsible for cleanup” and debris settles throughout the river system. Smith is hopeful obvious areas like the Beitner bridge site will be cleaned up, but notes other pollutants may end up at the Boardman mouth or near offshore in Grand Traverse Bay where they can be harder to reach.
“I just want to urge our community to do their part in helping walk along the river once it’s safe again and pick up whatever trash we can,” she says. “There will be a lot of it in the wake of this flooding.” Smith says the crisis also points to the need to “plan for a future where we can be more resilient and withstand climate change and more development. Because it’s going to get worse unless we do some really careful planning, especially about what we’re putting in our floodplain.”
Photo credit: Grand Traverse County Road Commission