On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the extraordinary efforts that culminated with the opening of a new and improved bridge near Edenville.

Jack Hofweber, manager of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Mt. Pleasant Transportation Service Center, reflects on the heavy rains and floods that breached dams and ravaged roads and bridges in several counties in 2020, just weeks after many people went into lockdown because of the pandemic.

In what meteorologists concluded was a 500-year event, the flooding that resulted from up to 7 inches of rain in Midland, Saginaw and surrounding counties damaged homes and property, forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate and most spectacularly destroyed one power dam and severely damaged another.

One year after the floods, an MLive drone video captured the changes.

On Monday, Oct. 7, MDOT Director Bradley C. Wieferich, elected officials, contractors and labor groups celebrated the opening of the new bridge, as highlighted in this video.

With climate change and sustained high water creating headaches for shoreline communities across the state and officials from several state agencies planning for more, the challenge of planning and building more resilient transportation infrastructure, especially during an ongoing period of underinvestment, remains acute.

Other relevant links:

https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2020/05/how-a-spring-rainstorm-became-a-500-year-flood-event-in-mid-michigan.html 

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/governor-expands-state-emergency-declaration-include-arenac-gladwin-and-saginaw-counties