Governor Whitmer attended today’s ceremony along with Jackson Mayor Daniel Mahoney, Jonathan Greene, City Manager, Jon Dowling City Engineer, William Miller, Operating Engineers, Rep. Julie Alexander and MDOT officials.
(May 13, 2022 2:50 PM) Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer attended a reopening ceremony of the East Washington Street bridge in Downtown Jackson to traffic, the third bridge repaired under the Rebuilding MI Bridges program in partnership with the Michigan Department of Transportation. This announcement comes a day after the 33 Mile Road bridge in Macomb County, the second bridge in the program, also reopened to traffic. The Rebuilding MI Bridges program is a bundling program, which covers several locations under one contract, streamlines coordination and permitting, increases economies of scale, and improves bridge conditions on local routes around the state.
“Across Michigan, we are moving dirt to fix roads and bridges, keeping drivers safe and saving them time and money. Today, I was proud to join the hardworking crew in Jackson to reopen the East Washington Street bridge, which links the east and west sides of the city,” said Governor Whitmer. “Since I took office through the end of 2022, we will fix over 16,000 lane miles of road and more than 1,200 bridges, supporting nearly 89,000 jobs. We’re fixing our infrastructure with the right mix and material, so it stays fixed. Last year, I signed a bipartisan bill that will fix 59 additional bridges across the state and today, I am proud that our bridge repair efforts, including MDOT’s local bridge bundling pilot program, continue to make progress. The projects we’re moving forward with will support more good-paying jobs and deliver on an issue that matters to us all—safe, reliable infrastructure. Let’s get it done.”
Before the rebuilding project, the overall condition of the bridge over the Grand River was rated “poor” and the bridge was posted with reduced weight limits. The project had originally been planned to start last fall, but potential issues with the steel supply chain delayed the start of all bridge bundling projects until this spring.
“Washington Street is right off the trunkline going into an industrial area. The bridge serves as a connector,” Jackson city engineer Jon Dowling said. “The project, once it got going, has gone great and construction went quickly.”
The city is expected to see another bridge repaired on the East Ganson Street bridge over the Grand River.
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