Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
LITTLE GIRL’S POINT — While there still remains work to be done, the installation of culverts around Little Girl’s Point has been completed, reopening Lake Road to local traffic.
Completion of the culvert work, which the Gogebic County Road Commission announced on its website Thursday, is a major step in repairing the Little Girl’s Point area after heavy rains during the July 11, 2016, storm caused widespread flooding and numerous road wash-outs.
This year’s work included the replacement of eight culverts, along with repaving a half-mile stretch of Lake Road, just north of the natural spring, as well as repaving Lake Road over the replacement culverts put in both this year and last. Ten culverts were replaced last year.
While much of the paving work still needs to be completed, there is time until the target completion date of Sept. 30, which Road Commission Engineer-Manager Darren Pionk gave the Daily Globe prior to the project’s start in August.
The work is being done by the Hancock-based MJO Construction, the lowest of four bids submitted to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
The company’s bid of $887,605 was roughly 13 percent lower than the estimated cost of just over $1 million, Pionk said.
MJO Construction was also the company responsible for last year’s work, which cost around $2,097,192.
As with last year, the road commission is funding the project with a State Infrastructure Bank loan upfront, and will get 80 percent of the costs reimbursed by the Federal Highway Administration, starting in 2018.
“It’s the only way we can move forward with this project quicker than waiting for the funding to be approved at the federal level,” Pionk told the Daily Globe in July. “This has been our goal from Day 1, to expedite all these culvert replacements as soon as possible.”