A Bridge Too Far

Spectator

Michigan has always been a bit of a mecca for campers; put up a tent, build a fire, head out on a hike or to the beach, and enjoy all that Michigan nature has to offer. We’ve provided plenty of opportunities for our adventuresome residents and visitors.

Michigan has 103 state parks and recreation areas and, according to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), those locations saw 35 million visitors in 2024, a slight increase over 2023. Ludington State Park had the most visits, but our own Keith J. Charters Traverse City State Park had the most reservations with nearly 12,000.

(Keith J. Charters, a Traverse City resident, was the longest serving chair of the Natural Resources Commission and also served 20 years on the board of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust. His name was added to the park in 2011.)

Like anything receiving lots of use over a long period, these parks need the occasional upgrades or improvements or just significant maintenance. That’s the case with our state park, which will close for $8.5 million worth of upgrades starting July 7 of this year and will not reopen until the 2027 camping season, though the state park beach will remain open during the construction

There will be a new, expanded entrance, a new headquarters, a new alignment of the intersection with Three Mile Road so it will be aligned with the beach entrance, and a new waste collection area. That all sounds perfectly reasonable.

Unfortunately, the upgrades will also include the removal of some 300 trees. Removing trees is practically a plague in these parts, as it seems every time something goes up, is expanded, or improved, trees come down. Let’s assume this culling is necessary and that other trees and the park will ultimately benefit. Besides, there is a more serious issue.

Among the changes will be the removal of the pedestrian bridge now crossing US-31 that makes it easier and infinitely safer for most campers to get back and forth from the campgrounds to the beach. True enough the bridge is old, likely needs repairs, and, regrettably, is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as there is no ramp, only stairs.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) tells us there is no way to replace the bridge with one that is ADA compliant because there is simply no room, especially on the north side of US-31. One assumes there would also be significant costs associated with a new pedestrian bridge.

MDOT instead intends to create a street-level pedestrian light and crossing. The risk factor will be significant. Apparently they have not spent much time observing how both locals and our numerous visitors choose to cross streets, especially in the summer. Not everybody politely goes to the light and then politely waits their turn. In town, with slower traffic, most of us can stop for the jaywalkers, but US-31 traffic likes to move faster, and vehicle pedestrian interfaces will be unkind for those on foot.

Additionally, yet another light along that stretch will add even more frustration in an area where there is already significant traffic congestion. Frustrated drivers and impatient vacationing pedestrians with their kids trying to get to the beach quickly are not a good combination at all.

And that bridge now being torn down is heavily used. As reported in The Ticker, a DNR survey found that 83 percent of state park campers used that bridge getting back and forth to the beach or the restaurants and shops on the north side of the highway at that location. That is thousands of bridge crossings safely above the traffic now relegated to street level and no real safety at all. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s not as if pedestrian fatalities are somehow insignificant. There were 183 pedestrians killed in Michigan in 2023, the highest number in a decade, and another 1,743 pedestrians were injured, an increase of 11 percent from 2022. (2024 numbers aren’t yet finalized.) Nationally, after a record-breaking 2022, pedestrian fatalities fell to just over 7,300 according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Another 65,000 plus were injured, the majority of whom were children under the age of 18.

A better idea might have been to repair the bridge and then figure a way to help those who can’t use it to get across US-31. There needs to be a better solution than putting thousands of people at risk crossing at street level during the busiest time of the year.

We’re told saving the elevated crossing was a bridge too far. We wonder if clever engineers or forward thinkers couldn’t have come up with a better idea than putting all those people on foot, crossing US-31 while relying on frustrated drivers to behave themselves.

View On Our Website