MUNISING — An important bill paving the way for construction this summer on Alger County Highway 58 was signed Friday by President Bush.
The technical corrections bill, approved previously in the U.S. House and Senate, makes technical corrections to the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, which was signed into law in 2005.
At that time, a short section of H-58 was inadvertently left out of the bill and the Federal Highway Administration would not allow construction to continue until it was corrected.
The delay jeopardized continuing work this summer to pave the highway, which stretches for 45 miles between Munising and Grand Marais and provides the primary access route to and through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
“The president signed the legislation for H-58 today,” Alger County Road Commission Chairman Doug Miron said Friday. “Bids will be let two weeks from today.”
News of Bush’s action was well-received at Pictured Rocks, where rangers have eagerly been anticipating the road work that is expected to attract many new visitors to the national lakeshore.
“That’s great news,” said Pictured Rocks Superintendent Jim Northup, referring to President Bush signing the legislation. “It would be my hope that the Federal Highway Administration would release the funds to Alger County as quickly as possible so we could move forward on this project this summer.”
A total of $11.5 million will be available to the county for H-58 work.
This summer, the Alger County Road Commission is set to pave — and in some places reconstruct — H-58 on a 10-mile stretch. The work will be from Buck Hill east to Kingston Corner, and then north to the southern boundary of the national lakeshore.
By brokering federal funding options and state matching dollars, the road commission was able to fully fund the H-58 road work at no cost to the county.
The road commission also stands to gain an estimated $100,000 annual savings in maintenance and materials costs by having H-58 paved.
Miron and others, including state and federal lawmakers and National Park Service officials, have worked on securing funding, deadline extensions and other provisions for various H-58 hard-surfacing projects for more than a decade.
The entire Munising to Grand Marais stretch of H-58 is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year.
