2 Alger County roads reopened after construction projects

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MUNISING - Alger County Road Commission officials announced the reopening Friday of two county roads, which have been closed for substantial construction work.

Alger County Highway 58 is now open from Buck Hill to Kingston Corner (Adam's Trail intersection). The road is gravel and will be plowed to Kingston Corner this winter. Paving will occur in 2009.

H-58 is also in good gravel condition for two miles north of Kingston Corner toward the southern boundary of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

However, the following two miles beyond this are still in sand grade and considered closed by the county road commission. The roadway will be open to snowmobiling this winter.

Weather permitting, crews hope to have the sand grade section up to a good gravel standard road by Dec. 1. Paving will occur in 2009, with traffic maintained in one lane.

The H-58 road project, which totals 10.3 miles from Buck Hill to the south boundary of the park, is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 1.

Work on a 12.7-mile section of Alger County Road 440 has been completed for the season.

The project begins at the Rapid River Truck Trail (CR 509) and extends 5.38 miles in Delta County, the remaining 7.36 miles miles in Alger County completes the road project to Federal Forest Highway 13.

The contractor is M&M Excavating of Gaylord and the awarded bid amount is $4.1 million. Alger County Road Commission Engineer-Manager Robert Lindbeck said the project includes substantial earthwork, aggregate base, culvert and drainage improvements, and a single layer of ashpalt paving.

Following the clearing process and 31 concrete cross-road culvert installations, the contractor suspended work for the winter on Thursday.

All work must be completed by Oct. 15, 2009. This project is funded through a Federal Forest Highway grant, in combination with required road commission matching dollars on both the Alger and Delta County segments.

"Inter-agency cooperation has been the key to project completion. The U.S. Forest Service, and Road Commissions in each county have really worked hard to insure that a context sensitive disign is utilized, while also meeting funding constraints," Lindbeck said.