Mar. 10—TRAVERSE CITY — For one property owner whose land abuts Bluff Road, Grand Traverse County Road Commission’s creating a work group to find ways to fix the road’s eroding section is like a “ray of light.”
Jim Raphael said he saw it as a step in the right direction after what he and other area residents contend is too long a wait to do something to fix the road.
“By and large, I thought it was quite a positive development,” he said, adding he credits to Road Commission Chairman Jason Gillman for taking charge on the issue.
Road commissioners formed the group at a recent meeting after hearing GEI Consulting’s recommendations for the section of Bluff Road, between Blue Water and Boursaw roads.
The firm made three suggestions: do nothing besides install turnarounds to make each end of the road that’s been closed since January 2020 a cul-de-sac while adding a trail between the turnarounds, reroute a nearby road to either Center Lane or the north end of Bluff Road, or fix the eroded section.
Gillman said he didn’t think the rerouting sections were a serious option. For one, the cost estimates — ranging from $650,000 to $1.2 million — don’t include the price of property acquisition.
“It would cost as much to do these options, in all likelihood, as it would to simply repair the road,” he said.
Estimates from GEI Consulting put that as high as $2.5 million, with the price of stone to armor the shoreline rising every day, according to the firm’s report.
It’s also likely the road commission could face stiff opposition to extending a nearby road, Mallard Drive, Gillman said. So the possibilities seemed like “non-starters” to him.
Raphael agreed, noting one option seemed to route a new road right through somebody’s house.
Doing nothing didn’t seem like a real option to Gillman, he said. That would still require stabilizing the shoreline and buying small bits of land for the turnarounds, which were not included in the $500,000 estimate.
Story continues
So he’s leaning toward the “fix” option as long as it’s financially feasible. It’ll likely involve a “mix of fixes” and a mix of funding sources.
Along with two road commission board members, the task force will include Dan Olson, the Mission Hills Homeowners Association vice president. Olson referred questions to Mike Skurski, the association’s president.
Skurski, who was similarly dismissive of suggestions to reroute Mallard Drive, said he thought the workgroup’s creation is long-overdue. He questioned whether GEI Consulting’s cost estimates were overblown, but is overall hopeful that the workgroup will present some real solutions soon.
Township Supervisor Rob Manigold also wants to be on the workgroup, he said. He also hailed its creation as a good omen that a fix for Bluff Road could soon be at hand.
“It’s a sign that we’re going to make it happen and we’re all working together to get it done,” he said.
Studies of the eroded section of the road revealed that pounding waves from record-high Lake Michigan levels weren’t the only problem. Water draining from uphill was undercutting the road, something that area residents weren’t surprised to learn after complaining about sinkholes opening in the pavement.
Grand Traverse County Drain Commissioner Andy Smits, another workgroup member, said water is ponding at Bluff Road and saturating the soil to the point where soil particles aren’t sticking together and are able to flow.
There are many possible fixes, and just what to do on the impacted section and how much it’ll cost remains to be seen.
So too is how the repairs will be funded. Gilman said finding sources is one of the workgroup’s tasks.
One complicating factor is the type of road, he said. Bluff Road, unlike the nearby Center Road, is a local one so the road commission is limited in how much it can spend on it.
“If it were a primary road, we’d have no choice, but it’s not a primary road, it’s a local road even though it is a through road,” he said.
But Gillman agreed that having another through route to add redundancy to the area’s road system is a good thing.
Raphael echoed this, noting nearby Center Road is sometimes impassible in bad winter weather along hilltop stretches where snow drifts pile deep. Being one of a few north-south through routes on Old Mission Peninsula, its importance seems undersold by the road commission’s descriptions and traffic counts, he said.
Smits said one possible funding mechanism could come from creating a drainage district. It’s similar to a road special assessment district, where every property owner who benefits from a repaving project pays a certain amount over several years.
Raphael said he’s hoping state lawmakers could step in with some funding, and agreed they did so before when Traverse City sought to repair a stretch of Eighth Street.
The group hasn’t met yet, Smits said, noting members are waiting for Manigold to set one up.
Meanwhile, the road commission has spent $64,000 to study the issue and potential solutions, on top of $116,160 to stabilize a nearby section of shoreline.
Comments are closed.