Road Commission Eyes Ambitious Plan for Boardman Crossings

Backed by the support of local leaders and elected representatives including U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, the Grand Traverse County Road Commission (GTCRC) is taking a big swing to address four of its crossings along the Boardman River. GTCRC has applied for more than $47 million in federal funding to replace culverts on Supply, Brown Bridge, and South Airport roads with modern bridge structures – a potential game-changing opportunity to protect against future flooding impacts along the Boardman.

GTCRC Manager Dan Watkins presented a grant application update to road commissioners Thursday. The grant was submitted through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) program. The program has allocated $787 million for projects nationally that help make infrastructure “more resilient to current and future weather events.”  

Watkins said East Bay Township Supervisor Beth Friend alerted him to the opportunity and that “staff went after it full force.” GTCRC’s application highlights the extensive damage caused by the April flooding along the Boardman, including the collapse of the Beitner Road bridge and the near collapse of South Airport Road and Brown Bridge Road crossings. South Airport, one of the region’s major east-west corridors, closed for a week until water levels receded, “forcing 40,000 daily motorists to seek alternative routes with limited remaining options,” the application states.

“Multiple county crossings experienced scour damage, embankment erosion, roadway instability, and emergency closures,” the application continues. “The event confirmed that several existing crossings were designed for historical river conditions and no longer provide adequate resilience to current and future flood hazards.”

Watkins said the “tube system” of culverts put in place decades ago has proven insufficient to handle the Boardman, particularly post-dam removal. The federal grant would allow GTCRC to replace crossings at Supply Road near Brown Bridge Road, Brown Bridge Road near both Knight Road and Arbutus Hill Road, and South Airport Road near Logan’s Landing.

“All the new bridges will be designed, at a minimum, to span the bankfull width of the Boardman River and accommodate a 100-year flood event,” the application states. “Additional work proposed for South Airport Road, which is a designated evacuation route, includes raising the road from the railroad tracks east of Cass Road to Park Drive, which will eliminate the frequent overtopping of the roadway as well as providing an opportunity for navigational clearance for recreational watercraft such as kayaks. Non-motorized access will also be included on the South Airport Road crossings, due to the proximity of an existing non-motorized corridor, a county Medalie Park, Boardman Lake, and numerous businesses.”

The inclusion of South Airport Road prompted some concerns during public comment from participants in the South Airport Road steering committee, which has approximately 30 community stakeholders working on a proposed new design for the crossing near Logan’s Landing. That committee is expected to have a conceptual plan ready by the end of the year, which would then go through review and possible adoption by the GTCRC, Garfield Township, and Grand Traverse County boards.

Watkins tells The Ticker, “We’re not trying to go around the steering committee. There is flexibility so we can incorporate ideas from the steering committee in the final design.” While GTCRC only handles roads and not non-motorized infrastructure like sidewalks and trails, it can “help set up other partners” – like Garfield Township or TART Trails – to ensure a project like rebuilding South Airport Road includes those elements, he says. Watkins cites the recent reconstruction of Franke Road with new sidewalks and pedestrian crossings as an example of how a multi-entity partnership can work.

While the federal grant could represent a “lottery ticket,” Watkins says it’s worth the chance to address the entire Boardman River corridor. The application got rare boosts of support from U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, along with U.S. Rep Jack Bergman, East Bay Township Supervisor Beth Friend, Garfield Township Supervisor Joe McManus, Union Township Supervisor Doug Mansfield, and GT Metro Services Authority Fire Chief Paul Mackin.

A decision on the grant is expected by spring. If the full amount is awarded, GTCRC would be responsible for a 20 percent match – roughly $9.5 million. Watkins says several funding options would be available, from bonding the debt to taking a multi-year budget approach to bridge replacements. Even if the application is rejected, the proposal helped GTCRC pull together a significant amount of “valuable information for the entire Boardman corridor” that can help inform future planning, Watkins says.

Road Commissioner Alisa Korn said that information is crucial because the amount of free-flowing water now coursing through Boardman culverts – and the traffic impacts seen to local roads when flooding hit – means GTCRC needs to address the crossings one way or another.  “Even if this (grant) doesn’t work, it gives us data…to move forward, because we really do need to prioritize replacing those crossings before we have another storm like we did this spring,” she said.