Maple Street Bridge over the Manistee River
Originally built in 1964, the Maple Street moveable bridge in Manistee, Michigan, serves as a primary route of transportation over the Manistee River. The structure is 286 feet long and is 37 feet wide, supporting two lanes of two-way traffic. It has an average daily traffic county of 6,000 cars per day and is an important route to keep open since it is only one of two river crossings in downtown Manistee. Sidewalks line both sides of the bridge which provide a popular spot for pedestrians to stop and view the river and boats. Additionally, this movable bridge must be opened periodically to allow freighters and pleasure craft to traverse the channel and access marinas and commercial ports.
For the past 10 years, Spicer Group has been responsible for carrying out required routine, mechanical/electrical, fracture critical, and underwater inspections for the bridge for the City of Manistee. These routine inspections identified areas of improvement and rehabilitation on the bridge that were necessary to extend its useful life span. The identified preventative maintenance repairs included structural steel paint, minor structural steel repairs, concrete deck and sidewalk patching epoxy overlay on the deck surface, healer sealer on the sidewalk, and miscellaneous electrical repairs.
Spicer Group worked with the City of Manistee to prepare and apply for Local Agency Program funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration. The funding was awarded and went towards covering 95% of the construction costs of nearly $1 million. The construction documents and specifications for the bridge repairs were all developed by Spicer Group, who also provided construction oversight and inspection during the renovations. This included steel inspection, paint inspection, and bride balancing along with the daily reports, LAP and office technician work. This project was constructed during the winter in order to shut down the shipping channel during construction.
