Three years after federal funding approval, work begins on replacing Country Club Bridge

Federally funded project expected to be finished by late October

ADRIAN TWP. — Drivers who travel Country Club Road between Wolf Creek Highway and Tipton Highway need to seek an alternate route for the next few months.

The Country Club Road bridge was closed Thursday by the Lenawee County Road Commission to begin a complete bridge replacement. 

The 44-foot bridge over Wolf Creek, near the intersection of Country Club Road and Tipton Highway in Adrian Township, was built in 1961 and will be replaced by a new, 54-foot bridge. The target completion date is Oct. 29. 

The bridge was first posted with weight limits in 2014 and again in 2017. 

Bids for the federally funded project were made through the Michigan Department of Transportation, with the lowest bidder being the Nunica-based J.E. Kloote Contracting Inc. for $894,811.75. The project was approved for federal funding in 2018. 

Road commission managing director Scott Merillat said Thursday that the structure of the old bridge will be removed next week. 

The project is beginning earlier than anticipated after the commission received a variance to restrictions in its permit to working in the water of Wolf Creek. 

Merillat said the permit received from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) originally included restrictions from working in the water between April 1 to June 30 because of fish spawning. 

But the first thing required to build a bridge is to build a coffer dam, which is steel sheeting that is driven into the ground to hold back the river where the work is being done to remove the old structure and build a new one. 

The commission asked for a variance to begin the project early and received authorization to work from April 1 to April 10, enough time to install the coffer dams and continue the work.

With the bridge bid only being awarded a couple of week ago, had the variance not been given, the project would have had to begin in the middle of July. 

“So that allows them to come out, get all that work done in the water now, and then the rest of the bridge is built inside that coffer dam and inside those sheaths so we're not impacting the water or the fish or anything else that's out there,” Merillat said. 

Merillat said the original completion date was made with the assumption that work will start after July 4, but with the early start, he hopes the bridge can be completed sometime in September. 

Unlike the old bridge with a concrete box structure, the new bridge will have concrete abutments, steel beams and a concrete deck. 

Merillat said he talked to a contractor last week to get approval for the steel beams. The contractor was rolling the beams through the area and had construction work not started, it would have been three months before the beams would have been in the area again. 

“So if we didn’t get them in that batch, we’d be waiting for beams to be fabricated to be delivered to the site,” he said. 

While hopeful the bridge will be completed ahead of schedule, Merillat’s biggest worry is obtaining materials, because there are many material shortages. So far, he’s keeping the original completion deadline in place. 

Most of the utilities are not in the way of construction and should not impact the project. 

“(We’re) hopeful that we don’t run into any problems, but any time you start digging a hole in the ground, you never know what you’re going to hit,” Merillat said. “Hopefully, it goes smoothly.”