Michigan Street Milestone

At 79 years old, The Historic Michigan Street Bridge, a Door County Veterans Memorial , has met yet another milestone in its fight for survival. Stephanie Hinkman of the Federal Highways Department, said today that the bridge rehabilitation "contract has been awarded". FHWA will be providing 80% of the rehab costs, while the WisDOT will cover 20% of the 18 million dollar rehab bill.

The rehab, which now also includes a very expensive, new remote monitoring system, will not use bridge tenders, but instead the draw structure will be computer and video controlled by connecting it to the newer Maple and Oregon Street bridge tenders house 770' away with fiber-optic cable installed by Charter Communications this spring.

At present, this corridor is served by the New 2-lane Maple and Oregon Street companion bridge and this corridor is experiencing higher than average crash rates, because presently it is undersized and never intended to be a single stand alone bridge to handle the high traffic needs of this busy commercial/industrial area. Once the 2-lane Michigan Street bridge is returned to service, the downtown, for the first time ever, will have safe 4-lane, 24/365 no downtime service across the canal.
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To celebrate the great news and the start off "National Historic Preservation Month", Citizens for Our Bridge, will be holding a "Photo Op" May 6th at Noon, on the historic Michigan Street Bridge (with WisDOT's help) to document the original condition before they begin the historic bridge transformation to being remote monitored and newly modernized. All are welcome, but they must have a camera or video and agree to donate a copy of all footage to CfOB for our archives.
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CfOB, is a non-profit 501c3 organization, dedicated to the long-term preservation of the Historic Michigan Street Bridge and the historic community that surrounds it. For thirteen years CfOB has been actively working toward saving the historic bridge with a no downtime solution and played an active role in securing the 2 lane Maple and Oregon companion bridge to resolve the 4 lanes required for federal funding to address safety. We have also over the years, listed the bridge on the National Register of Historic Places, Wisconsin Register of Historic Places, and onto the "Wisconsin's 10 most endangered list" twice , working with many national and regional historic preservation groups.

The next phase of our plan is to celebrate 80th anneversary, after the DOT has secured the rehab, by concentrate on building a 3 million dollar (min.) Michigan Street Bridge Endowment Fund, which will be dedicated to the ongoing bridge maintenance. This fund will once and for all insure this historic structure and the community, will never have to fight for or worry about, simple repairs or it's future ever again . . .