Sturgeon Bay bridge closing for two months The repairs should extend its life about five years For The News-Chronicle STURGEON BAY - Repairs planned since August will be started Feb. 18 on the Michigan Street Bridge in downtown Sturgeon Bay and keep the span closed to traffic for nearly two months. At worst, the repairs to the bridge - gears, shafts, pier casings and sidewalks - will be completed by April 19, said Kim Rudat, communications manager for the state Department of Transportation office in Green Bay. But if the weather and other factors cooperate, the work could be completed as early as the first week of April, he added. During the repairs, the bridge will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians. Vehicles will be detoured to the Bayview Bridge, the city's only other bay crossing located about a mile south along the State 42-57 bypass. The shutdown is needed to complete repair work identified as necessary during a rigorous inspection in October 2000. After the repairs are completed, the functional life of the bridge should be extended for about five years, at which time issues regarding whether to replace or rehabilitate the 71-year-old bridge should be resolved. The bridge, opened in 1931, was declared mechanically obsolete by the DOT in 1995. Since then, a long-running debate has forced the DOT and its consultants to examine nearly every possible alternative for providing a bridge for the next half-century or beyond. After reviewing the options, the Sturgeon Bay Common Council decided in a special meeting Jan. 5 to ask for two bridges: a new two-lane bridge in the corridor between Maple Street on the West Side and Oregon Street on the East Side; and either a replacement for or reconstruction of the existing Michigan Street Bridge. The twin-bridge option, estimated to cost from $53 million to $67 million, was formally adopted by the council Jan. 15 and forwarded to the DOT. The state agency has not responded to the city request. The DOT is scheduled to make its own recommendation by March 1, Rudat said. Up to this point, the DOT has argued that state laws limit it to spending $25 million to replace the bridge with a new two-lane structure in the present corridor. DOT engineers have begun working with Sturgeon Bay business groups to plan ways to reduce negative effects of the lengthy repair shutdown. The work includes replacing 13 gears, in addition to 10 that have been replaced due to emergencies in 2001; replacing eight associated gear shafts; patching welds and support beams in the lift spans; shoring up concrete on the piers; and repairing the sidewalk. Bids were solicited last fall, and the $616,000 repair contract was awarded in December to Lunda Construction Co. of Black River Falls. Since 1994, the DOT has spent more than $775,000 maintaining the bridge. The amount does not include regular inspections and maintenance by department staff, Rudat said.