KENT COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — It was just a joke and west Michigan got it. It was proposed by a fan of the bridge’s Facebook page that the population mobilize to help out the state of Michigan and bubble wrap the 100th Street Bridge, which has been fractured and battered and partially closed, and is in need of rebuilding.
At the time the bubblewrap party was suggested, complete with a mock-up of what it might look like protected by plastic, the bridge had already been hit 5 times by semi-truck loads since January. Those trucks had loads that were too tall to fit under the bridge’s span.
Mike Niemchick says about 4,000 people responded to his posting on the bridge’s Facebook page that they were interested in coming out Saturday to help apply bubble wrap, a response that surprised and delighted him but apparently became a concern for Michigan State Police.
They issued an actual warning telling people that they would not be allowing the application of the packing material to the overpass, and they shouldn’t turn out in large numbers at an area that is designed for traffic not for big crowds.
Then early Friday the bridge was struck for a 6th time by a semi stacked with wooden pallets, but no additional damage was done.
MDOT has plans to rebuild the bridge and give traffic passing under it a couple more feet of headroom, but it may take a year or two for the project to move up on the priority list, maybe longer.
Spokesman John Richard says the bridge is posted at 13-feet, 11-inches, just as it has been for the last 61 years. There are signs and notifications in trucker’s manuals. Richard says it’s an easy enough problem to bypass if they go up the ramps on one side of the overpass and reenter U.S. 131 on the other side.
Niemchick traveled to the bridge on Saturday, but to his relief few others did.
You can check out the posting and the Facebook page now dedicated to telling the story of the embattleled bridge, which has become a symbol for Michigan’s infrastructure woes.
