Crystal River bridge opens in June:
The Leelanau County Road Commission is excited to announce that the Crystal River bridges will open fulltime after being down for construction for nearly a year, beginning later this month (June 17-18), marking the start of a busy summer of maintaining county roads.
Team Elmers has paved the base course of the asphalt on the Crystal River bridges and is expected back to finish over the next few weeks.
Other big projects include Alpine and White Road bridges in Solon Township that are expected to begin in July but could be pushed back until the fall due to manufacturing of bridge components.
“You cut across Alpine Road, and that’s the Cedar Run Creek. Then White Road is roughly half a mile south of that,” Leelanau County Road Commission Manager Brendan Mullane said. “They both cross the creek at the same time. There’ll be detours for each other ... that was supposed to go last year, but it got caught up in some federal funding issues, and it’s a go again. We are waiting for the bridges to be built.”
The road commission plans to spend $4.2 million in 2026 on road improvements.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting, residents of Old Farm Rd and Seth Road have renewed interest in a land swap with the conservancy to allow for improvements to the heavily traveled private portion of Seth Road.
The Co. Road 641 culverts near Veronica Valley are slated to be replaced this week, and chip-sealing around the county is still slated to start mid-June. An asphalt overlay on Crystal View Road will wrap up culvert replacement work along the Crystal River that began last summer, while minor patching repairs are also planned for Dunns Farm Road and South Lake Leelanau Drive.
Molon Paving plans to pave the road commission’s Spring projects over the next two weeks.
Crews finished street sweeping and storm cleanup weeks ago and have moved on to ditching projects, road grading, brush trimming, and paving project preparation.
At its Tuesday regular meeting, the road commission awarded Elmer’s a fall bid of nearly $700,000 for HMA (Hot Mix Asphalt) projects.
Bid projects for the fall are expected to be finalized in August.
The road commission entered an agreement with Leland Township to help with asphalt paving on Grand Avenue on the east side of town.
“We paid for it, and the township reimburses us. It was pretty boring paperwork, but it matters because the township is paying for that overlay in Leland, which is happening (yesterday),” Mullane said.
The Road Commission was also busy paving and widening shoulders out at Glen Haven near the cannery Wednesday as of press time.
The board reviewed a draft policy Tuesday regarding excess land sales that determines when the road commission can sell a piece of property, which will go to a vote next week.
The purpose of this policy is to establish uniform standards and procedures by which the Leelanau County Road Commission identifies and declares excess public real estate and sells, exchanges, or otherwise disposes of that property. This policy is intended to ensure that all dispositions of Road Commission.
Thirty-five roads across Leelanau County are slated for chip sealing this summer, spanning County Road 626/East Omena Road, County Road 626/ Jacobson Road, County Road 629/North Lighthouse Point Road, County Road 631/North Overlook Road and County Road 640/North Mill Street, along with Roubal, Nanagosa, Grand Avenue, Spinnaker, Walden Court, Kilcherman, Christmas Cove, Cathead Point, Elnora, Foxview, Garthe, Nelson, Melkild, Clausen, Johnson, Carlson, Casperson, Camp Haven, Indian Beach, Dawn Haven, Lee Mann, David, Kolarik, Novotney, Scott, Peterson Park, Montmorency, Blossom Lane, Ridgeview and Shaker.
