With about a month left in the traditional summer season, road construction crews have completed or made significant progress on a number of projects throughout Emmet and Charlevoix counties. The following is a look at where those long-term projects stand and what is yet to come.

Michigan Department of Transportation

The Michigan Department of Transportation has already completed a few significant projects in repaving a section of M-119 east of Harbor Springs and overhaul work on Memorial Bridge in Charlevoix this past spring. However, there is one bigger project that still has several weeks to go, and one more that will be starting just after Labor Day.

U.S. 31 north of Pellston: Since early April, crews have been working on a major reconstruction project on a 4.2-mile stretch of U.S. 31 between Douglas Lake Road on the north side of Pellston to Levering Road. The $5 million project includes realigning a curve south of Ball Road, excavating several feet of unstable subsurface soils, other roadbed stabilization work and culvert replacement.

Portions of the project have required a detour around the affected area.

Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman James Lake said this week that the project remains on track for its originally estimated completion date in late October.

Were still on schedule, having wrapped up the northern and southern sections of this project, and moving on to the middle section where were replacing some culverts. We just started work on the last large box culvert, then well move on to some remaining road base work and then initial paving. By the end of the month we plan to lift the detour and maintain traffic with a single-lane closure under flag control for the remainder of the project, scheduled to be complete by the end of October, Lake said.

U.S. 131 in southern Emmet County: An earlier announced project to resurface a 4.2-mile section of U.S. 131 from Lears Road to Bear River Road is still expected to begin shortly after Labor Day.

Lake said the $970,000 project will involve grinding off and replacing the top layer of asphalt. The project will require single-lane closures and is expected to be completed by Oct. 20.

M-75 North in Charlevoix County: Earlier this summer Michigan Department of Transportation crews spent about two weeks doing maintenance work on M-75 North between Boyne City and the village of Walloon Lake. The work left some area motorists puzzled about the project and concerned about the plan for the road section going forward.

Lake explained that the maintenance work done is known as durapatching which is a hybrid of crack sealing and chip sealing. He said the process is primarily aimed at sealing the roadway and filling in some cracking and potholes.

Lake further explained: Its more durable than cold asphalt patching, but it is built up slightly higher than the surrounding roadway, as we need to taper it to the sound pavement. Thats the reason it feels somewhat bumpy to drivers. This is work done by an MDOT maintenance crew that performs this type of work all over Northern Michigan. Its just intended to keep the road held together for a few more years when we return with a resurfacing project on this stretch currently slated for 2019.

Petoskey

Emmet Street: The most significant street and infrastructure project in the city of Petoskey this year has been taking place for about the past two months on a three-block section of Emmet Street between Washington and State streets. The project involves complete replacement of water, sewer and storm sewer, infrastructure, placing electrical and cable lines underground, street and sidewalk reconstruction, and streetscaping. Around the Fourth of July crews finished work on most of the southern portion of the project and began work on the northern half.

On Wednesday, city public works director Mike Robbins said as of today, Friday, crews are expected to wrap up the majority of the underground infrastructure work involved. He said next week crews will start placing gravel and bringing the street up to grade. After that concrete crews will move in and begin pouring curbs and sidewalks.

He said weather permitting, crews could begin paving the first course on the north section by the end of the month. He said the project is still on track to be completely wrapped up by mid-September.

Gas line work: Although not a city project, Robbins also highlighted an ongoing a DTE Energy natural gas pipeline extension project that will have some impact on neighborhood traffic in the coming weeks.

Robbins said on Wednesday crews began working on Kalamazoo Avenue. They will then move down Grove Street to Waukazoo, and then eventually from Waukazoo to Beach Street. Robbins said the city has asked the crews to limit traffic restrictions related to the work to one block at a time to keep traffic impacts to a minimum.

Emmet County

Emmet County Road Commission Engineer-Manager Brian Gutowski said the road commission is having a record year for township-funded road projects with more than $3 million in work taking place.

Ongoing Emmet County Road Commission projects include:

Atkins Road from Cedar Valley Road eastward for approximately 0.65 mile in Bear Creek Township. This is a reconstruction of the road. The road has temporary closures. The project is expected to be completed sometime next week. This is a township-funded project.

Mackinaw Highway from U.S. 31 to Trails End Road for 2.2 miles in Wawatam Township. This is a total reconstruction and also has temporary closures. This project just started on Monday of this week. The work is expected to be completed by Sept. 15. This project is funded through the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians with Federal Highway Administration - Bureau of Indian Affairs funds.

Osborne Road from State Road westward for 1 mile in Readmond Township. The road is a gravel road and is being widened in preparation for future paving. This is a township-funded project and is expected to be completed toward the end of September.

Asphalt wedging on various roads in Carp Lake Township, Bliss Township, Cross Village Township, Center Township and McKinley Township. These are township-funded projects.

Projects still to be started this year are as follows:

Townline Road from Middle Village Road then south for 0.91 mile in Friendship Township. This is an asphalt overlay project and funded by the township.

Beacon Hill Road from Stutsmanville Road then south for 0.09 mile in Friendship Township. This is an asphalt overlay project and funded by the township.

Channel Road from Pickerel Lake Road to the Minnehaha Creek for 1 mile in Springvale Township. This is a reconstruction project and funded by the township. There will be lane closures during the project. The work is expected to begin before the end of August and be completed by the end of September.

Maxwell Road over Minnehaha Creek for culvert replacement. Crews will be replacing 2 3-foot culverts and installing a 14-foot culvert. This project is slated to begin the week of Aug. 14 and be completed by Aug. 24. This section of road will be closed during the project which is being funded through the Tip of the Mitt watershed with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funds to improve fish passage in the creek.

Charlevoix County

The most notable project for the Charlevoix County Road Commission is one that wasnt planned. On May 6 a many-decades-old culvert on Shadow Trail collapsed as a vehicle drove over it and that road has been closed ever since. Last week, after many weeks of delays, crews began work to replace the culvert.

Road commission engineer Jim Vanek said work is progressing with crews driving sheet piling in to prepare for putting the new culvert in place. He said if the weather cooperates, crews are hoping to have the road back open before Labor Day. He said the weather can have a significant impact on the work because even a small amount of rain can raise the level of Fineout Creek. He noted that the rain that fell on the area early Wednesday raised the water level about a foot when crews arrived later in the morning.

Anderson Road: Vanek said work is expected to begin in the next two to three weeks on a project along boundary between Boyne City and Wilson Township. The project will involve reconstructing a 0.53-mile section of Anderson Road from Marshall Road nearly to Day Road.

The work will include reconstructing the road using a process known as crush and shape, in which the existing pavement is pulverized and used as the roadbed for the new pavement, removal of some poor subgrade soils and installing about 1,200 feet of storm sewer lines on each side of the road.

The contract calls for the project to be completed by Sept. 22.

Vanes said a few other smaller projects are also still on the schedule for yet this construction season. Perhaps the most notable will be a project to replace a culvert on Horton Bay Road in Bay Township right at the Lavender Hill Farm location.

The project is expected to start in mid-September and take about two weeks to complete. The road will be closed and traffic will be detoured to Pincherry and Church roads while the work is taking place.

Other upcoming project include repaving the Sumner Road entrance to Villa De Charlevoix, which is expected to start Sept. 8; a small paving job in the Springbrook Hill subdivision in Melrose Township; and some paving work on residential streets on the north side of U.S. 31 in Bay Shore, expected to take place in the next few weeks.

Charlevoix

Just this week The Charlevoix City Council approved a street resurfacing contract.

All of the work will involve pulverizing the existing asphalt, regrading the road and compacting that material, and then laying two, 1.5-inch layers of asphalt for a total of 3 inches of asphalt.

The work will take place on portions of Stover, Lake, Newman, Auld, Oak, Elm, Prospect, Burns, West Dixon, Coast Guard Drive, and two small sections of May Street.

These roads and/or sections of city roads were chosen due to their degraded condition and the amount of time and money the city has spent spent filling potholes and other repairs, city manager Mark Heydlauff said.

Boyne City

Boyne City officials took care of several road resurfacing projects earlier this summer. Those projects have all been completed and no other significant street projects are planned this year, city street superintendent Andy Kovolski said.

East Jordan

East Jordan City Administrator Tom Cannon said the city had no major street projects on the docket this year. He said a few minor projects will probably take place yet this year on some residential streets.

Harbor Springs

Harbor Springs City Manager Tom Richards said the city had no street projects planned this year. The only work taking place yet this year is some guard rail replacement on Pennsylvania Avenue and replacing a failing retaining wall near the intersection of Third and Judd streets. Work on the retaining wall project is expected to begin in September.

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Work in progress - Petoskey News-Review