[Rhodes22-list] The bridges won't be fixed anytime soon

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Hi All,

I received the following from Bill Mayhew at MDOT:


From Bill Mayhew,

This rainstorm was devasting!  My son's house was flooded with 3 feet of water in the main floor.
I've spent the week assessing the damage to the roads and bridges in the area.  The roads are fine, and we have them as opened as we can get them for now.  The bridges are another story.  We were able to open M-20 all the way from Midland through Mt. Pleasant yesterday.  M-30 is open up to Edenville.  Do NOT take M-30 thinking you will be able to get north.  Curtis Road is shut off and M-30 is shut off due to the devastation.  You will have to find another route such as US-10 to M-18 to M-61.
We are hoping to have the US-10 bridges over Sanford Lake open for Eastbound traffic in 1-2 weeks.  The West bound is another story.  We are hoping to get that open in about 3 weeks.
M-30 bridges:  WOW!  The bridge in the Wixom Lake Causeway is GONE and the abutments are gone too.  That will be a complete reconstruct.  Possibly wider and higher that the previous one, time will tell on that.  The M-30 bridge over the Tittabawassee River on the north side of Edenville will be demolished and rebuilt.  There is no timeline on them at this point.  We are concentrating on US-10 for now.  The M-30 bridge will likely be demolished this summer.  The reconstruction is a least a year out from starting- we need to assess the river and all.  Right now there is still a LOT of water coming through there and it is not safe to try to do any close inspections.  STAY AWAY from these areas!  They are not safe with the water flowing and the saturated soil.  There are barricades- do not cross them.
I do not have any information at this time on the Curtis Road bridge.  It is owned by Midland County.  They are assessing it.  They have great people and I am sure they are working on it, and making plans on what needs to be done.
Stay safe everyone, we will get through this.

So, the two bridges we need repaired to get to Johnson Mini Storage are both going to have to be first torn down and then reconstructed.  We might not get access for years?  With M-20 reopening, getting in to Midland is now possible.  But, it involves a circuitous 45 mile 1-way trip that used to be only 21 miles.  Living on the west side of Sanford Lake has become sort of like living in some sort of dystopic gated community.  There is only one way in and out, there are police everywhere, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft overhead, and we even have a moat!

Most of our home town of Sanford is destroyed.  We didn’t get any USPS snail mail for 3 days.  When I saw my mail carrier on Friday, she told me they’ve moved operations to Coleman, another small town to the west.  Any mail that was in the Sanford Post Office on Tuesday was destroyed.  If there were any bills, does that mean I still have to pay them? 😊

Midland had record flooding and huge problems with their water and sewage systems.  There are something like 10K Midland residents in shelters even now.  Many homes are unlivable due to sewage backing up.  Fortunately, there have been no fatalities to date.  But, they need to keep moving on the cleanup or we could be looking at water borne diseases like cholera and dysentery.  If they even have city water service, they’ve been under a boil water advisory since Wednesday, although I think that’s ending today.

On a sour note, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has extended our “Safe At Home” state shutdown until June 12th.  ☹

Other than that, things is dull!

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

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